Blood Safari

Emma, a business consultant, is convinced someone is trying to kill her, so she hires a bodyguard. The guardian, a quiet man named Lemmer, accompanies her on a quest to learn whether her long-lost brother is alive. During her search in the South African bush it becomes clear that Emma is indeed in danger. Simon Vance builds the tension with tone, pacing, and inflection. Meyer's forte is character development, in particular the character of Lemmer. Vance reveals a man who slowly brings down his emotional wall as he tells his own story. Overall, Vance keeps the action going and applies distinctive touches for friends and foes. M.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

December 20, 2010
Simon Vance provides an assortment of authentic-sounding Afrikaans accents (think Scottish with a Germanic edge) for this first-class thriller that manages to include South African history and musings on apartheid and the environment without losing a beat of its feverish pacing. Meyer's novel is essentially one relentless chase across South Africa, with hard-boiled bodyguard Martin Lemmer and his beautiful client, Emma le Roux, on the run from a team of paramilitary killers possibly hired by her brother. For Lemmer, the book's narrator, Vance uses a tough, terse delivery that nails the character as a South African version of Lee Child's Jack Reacher. And he's just as on target in crafting variations of his accent for the rest of the cast. Men, women, white, black, friends and foes, Vance has their vocal number. An Atlantic Monthly hardcover.

Starred review from January 1, 2011

A South African bodyguard assigned to a beautiful young Afrikaner woman looking for a brother long thought dead wonders why she even needs protection--until a shocking act of violence thrusts him into a world of almost unimaginable greed and intrigue. In this taut thriller, celebrated crime novelist Meyer (www.deonmeyer.com) takes his characters into South Africa's game reserves. Though the book does contain scenes of brutal violence, its lurid-sounding title is misleading; it might more accurately be described as a journey into the troubled psychology of postapartheid South Africa. Ably narrated by Simon Vance (see Behind the Mike, LJ 11/15/08), this first-person tale--a best seller in Germany and South Africa, where it won the inaugural ATKV Prize for suspense fiction--offers a penetrating and often surprising look into modern South Africa that makes for compelling listening. Highly recommended. [The Atlantic Monthly hc also received a starred review, LJ 8/09; the mass market pb is available through Grove Pr.--Ed.]--R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

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