Crime Beat

If you love your krimis to take off knee deep in blood and you like gaining insight into several sides of the South African psyche, then Plaasmoord is your book. It’s a …um… bloody good read.

Karin Brynard het die Afrikaanse krimi-wêreld met die trefkrag van ’n asteroïede uit die Baptistina-gordel geslaan. Om Izak de Vries aan te haal: Plaasmoord is ’n bliksem van ’n boek wat spanningsvrate hulle toonnaels sal laat kou van die lekker. (more…)

Crime Beat’s Afrikaans editor Chanette Paul’s come up with her list of Top 10 krimi authors – well, 11 actually but because of her editorial position we’re allowing her leeway. Some interesting choices from Tana French to Alice Sebold and a special mention for local hotshots Deon Meyer and Jassy Mackenzie. Chanette skryf:

Omdat my werk behels dat ek baie lees (dikwels goed wat ek nie juis andersins sou lees nie), boonop sowat 70+ manuskripte per jaar moet deurwerk en vragte navorsing vir my eie boeke doen, lees ek wanneer ek my eie leesstof kan kies, suiwer vir ontspanning. Ek wil nie noodwendig intellektueel gestimuleer word nie, ek wil nie met te veel van die nare werklikheid gekonfronteer word nie (ja, ek is ’n bietjie van ’n sissie wat gruwels betref), ek wil my net verlustig in ’n lekkerkry storie wat goed genoeg geskryf is dat die manuskripontwikkelaar/keurder in my nie wakker gemaak word nie. Die lys is nie in enige spesifieke volgorde nie, en daar is heelwat ander krimi-skrywers wat my ook heerlik vermaak, soos Kathy Reichs, Mary Higgins-Clarke en dergelike, maar hulle haal om verskillende redes nie vir my heeltemal die paal nie. Ek volstaan dus by hierdie keuse. (more…)

Onskuld word nie maklik bewys nie… veral nie ’n tweede maal nie.
In a murder case guilt is not easy to prove but it is even harder to prove innocence, especially a second time, when every Sunday paper reader thinks you are guilty. This is but one of the obstacles Kayla Cilliers has to overcome in Chanette Paul’s Boheem, the third novel in her Gys Niemand series. Crime Beat het Leon van Nierop gevra om ‘n onderhoud met haar te voer. (more…)

Boekbekendstellings is nou nie juis die soort ding wat dikwels met skrywers van romantiese fiksie gebeur nie. Na veertien jaar in die skryfbedryf, was dit dus vir Chanette Paul ’n opwindende, maar angswekkende nuutjie om drie bekendstellings van haar krimi roman Boheem in ’n ry te doen. (more…)

Stray doppies
Crime Beat has been up and running for two years now and so to all the krimi authors who’ve so willingly participated in our Q&A sessions, who have contributed top-ten lists, and lists of their favourite badlands songs, or short stories or kort krimis and have generally punted the blog – our thanks. The blog is doing very well and has set up reciprocal arrangements with some great international sites.
We’ve got a new feature coming up: signed book giveaways - so watch this space in the coming weeks if you want a chance to win a signed reprint copy of Margie Orford’s Like Clockwork, Deon Meyer’s Blood Safari or Mike Nicol’s Payback.
It has been announced already but in case you missed it the first time, the movie rights to Deon Meyer’s 13 Uur have been sold to London-based South African film-making team Malcolm Kohll and Robert Fig.

Crime Beat Diary August 10 – August 13:
Monday: Time out for the holiday.
Tuesday: A first for Crime Beat: read Christopher G Moore on the difference between crime fiction and reality.
Wednesday: More on crime fiction and reality.
Thursday: Crime Cameos. Number six in our season of krimi short stories, ‘Herehuis van die Barones’ deur Derick Muller.

Francois Bloemhof is one of the most prolific crime novelists in the country having published twelve crime thrillers between 1991 and last year. This year he is scheduled to have two krimis published, the first of which Harde Woorde appeared last month from Lapa. As a teaser here’s the first chapter: (more…)

Last week Crime Beat presented nine of the writers featured in the krimi anthology Bad Company (Pan Macmillan). Here are the biogs, comments on crime writing and opening paragraphs from the remaining eight, selected alphabetically. If you’re in Durban you’re invited to attend the launch of this collection at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre (the Wellington Tavern Deck) at 18h45. (more…)

We’ll be back on Monday 12 January 2009. Till then happy holidays, and, from the Crime Beat editors, best wishes for the season and a prosperous New Year. (more…)

The final stories in this Kort Krimi season. The ‘anthology’ is out on Friday.

The Fictions

Visitor by Francois Bloemhof
My wife chose you. Now die.

Poke by Hazel Friedman
It lay twisted, fractured, utterly abject.

Murder by Andrew Gray
Art: Chaos. Fear. Pattern. Fear. Death.

Corruption by Rob Marsh
‘Forgive me, comrades,’ says honest politician.

(more…)

Coming up in the week ahead:
Monday: Intent on her quest for crime fiction as entertainment, Barbara Erasmus finds plenty of it in Sebastian Faulks’s Engelby.
Tuesday: The Kort Krimi season of nastiness continues with part five featuring Francois Bloemhof, Andrew Gray, Rob Marsh and Hazel Friedman.
Wednesday: A wrap of this year’s Afrikaans crime fiction scene by Dirk Jordaan.
Thursday: Another sign that the year is drawing to an end as Mike Nicol takes a look at the English-language krimis that made 2008 a hot year for the local genre.
Friday This will be the last post as we’re taking a break for the summer holidays. Crime Beat will be back from Monday 12 January 2009. Till then we leave you with a wicked Father Christmas and an anthology of the best of the Kort Krimis which, according to our hit rates, have proved a major, well, hit.

Stray doppies:
Chanette Paul will be talking about her two novels Springgety and Fortuin at the Overstrand Book Fair on Friday afternoon 12 December 2008 from four to four thirty. Don’t miss her. The book fair is on all day at the Mthimkhulu Village Centre, Kleinmond.
Richard Kunzmann tipped off Crime Beat to a CWA competition that is open to anyone who hasn’t published a novel but wants to take a stab at writing crime fiction. All the details are here. Give it your best shot. Hammer out something this holiday as you’ve got till February to finish it off. I could go on but I wont.
There’s a belief in the wind (first put to Deon Meyer) that we crime novelists do what we do because we’re all repressed serial killers. And I thought I was just sharpening the knife in preparation for the Xmas roast.