Memo from Turner

February 1, 2019
Willocks has borrowed stock elements from old forms and cobbled them into one fine thriller. There's the tiny South African town under the thumb of the super-rich mine owner (in this case, a woman), the town officials she's bought off, and her son, who, on a drunken night, has killed a girl from the underclass. The cover-up is starting, but not if our incorruptible hero, warrant officer Turner, has anything to say about it. Formulas in place, Willocks abandons them for something better. Townspeople, not all craven officials, become a kind of Greek chorus, putting forth arguments for doing nothing against the corruption. The mine owner has been good for the town, her son isn't a twit but potentially a fine young man, and Turner's neighbor wonders why an intelligent man is working such a stupid job. Nothing changes through his efforts, and it isn't even well paid. Turner's answer comes in overpowering scenes of carnage that can make one forget they're just words on paper. We learn what Turner means by, Let justice be done, and it isn't all that pretty. A fine crime novel that delights in upending our expectations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)