The Last Hunt

February 1, 2020
A man who fell, or jumped, or was pushed, off a fast-moving car of "the most luxurious train in the world" poses a knotty problem for Capt. Benny Griessel and Capt. Vaughn Cupido of the South African Police Service--a problem that keeps getting worse the more closely they look into it. Since leaving the SAPS himself, Johnson Johnson has worked as a private bodyguard. He did an exemplary job protecting Dutch tourist Thilini Scherpenzeel, his client aboard the exclusive Rovos Rail train bound for Pretoria, but did much less well by himself. Eight days after vanishing from the train, he's found with his head crushed along a deserted stretch in the Great Karoo. What disturbs Griessel and Cupido (The Woman in the Blue Cloak, 2019, etc.) even more than the absence of obvious clues, the looming jurisdictional squabbles, and the obtuseness of DS Aubrey Verwey, the Beaufort West cop who informs them of the body, is the unmistakable signs of a coverup. Both Griessel and Cupido are sensitive to "the state-capture mess," the rampant signs that particular government officials and institutions have been corrupted by criminal conspiracies, and they're both happy that although their boss, Col. Mbali Kaleni, may have her issues, neither she nor their unit has been captured. But it becomes increasingly clear that other agencies determined to dismiss Johnson's death as an unfortunate accident are motivated by more sinister forces. As the investigation moves haltingly forward, Meyer keeps cutting away to follow Daniel Darret, a soldier of fortune self-exiled to Bordeaux, who's targeted first by some young toughs seeking revenge for his rescue of painter Élodie Lecompte, then by his old comrades in arms who want him to volunteer for a mission that will stretch his loyalties to their limit, require of him heroic self-sacrifice, and entangle him in the death of Johnson Johnson in a shattering climax. A double-barreled tale that's sprawling, shape-shifting, and, in the end, deeply satisfying.

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Starred review from February 24, 2020
In Meyer’s superb sixth novel featuring Capt. Benny Griessel (after 2015’s Icarus), Griessel and Capt. Vaughn Cupido, his police partner in South Africa’s elite Hawks investigative unit, are handed a “hot potato,” the possible murder of Johnson Johnson, a private security guard who was hired to protect a wealthy Dutch tourist on a luxury train from Cape Town to Pretoria. Johnson never made it to Pretoria. Nine days after he boarded the train, his body was found beside a railway line in the Northern Cape with a massive skull fracture. Griessel and Cupido’s attempts to learn the truth aren’t welcomed by everyone in the government. Meanwhile, Daniel Darret, a native South African who has settled in Bordeaux, France, rescues a female stranger from a gang of assailants with fighting skills that suggest he’s a trained killer. An old friend from South Africa soon has an important job for Darret. Meyer keeps the suspense high as the reader tries to figure out how the two plotlines connect. This may be the breakthrough book this author deserves. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.

Starred review from February 15, 2020
Two disparate plotlines merge to form an explosive conclusion in this political thriller. After suffering losses earlier in his life, former hit man Daniel Darret, a South African, lives quietly in Bordeaux, France, assisting a master furniture restorer. Things change abruptly when he's found by someone from his past and asked to undertake a mission that he has no choice but to accept. Meanwhile, in Bellville, South Africa, Captain Benny Griessel and his partner, Vaughn Cupido, of the elite Hawks police unit, are given a case that was badly handled by the initial investigators. When the death of an ex-cop is officially ruled a suicide?the Hawks are convinced it was murder?Griessel and Cupido are advised by their colonel to proceed with caution, wary of whom in the bureaucracy they can trust. At the same time, both men have personal concerns: Griessel is scared of proposing to the woman he has lived with for years, while Cupido is aching to prove to his girlfriend's son that the Hawks are not corrupt. Despite their human flaws, Griessel and Cupido have integrity, which they display as they encounter massive corruption in the current South African political administration, corruption that proves to be at the centers of both plotlines. The latest Benny Griessel novel is a compelling page-turner and a searing portrait of the author's native country.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)