GROUP A BOOKS 2023-2024: 14 Nominated books. Vote for no more than 7.

A8 Type: Police Procedural (Cop-FBI-Sheriff-GameWarden) The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer, 2022 / MVLC: 15

Basics · Protagonist: Benny Griessel, an aging, alcoholic police inspector and his partner Vaughn Cupido perform well, in two separate cases that they face while banished to a presumably quiet small city away from Cape Town. One case is a missing university student, the other is a missing billionaire real estate manipulator. The "banishment" of Griessel and Vaughn was a result of an unauthorized investigation that threatened to reveal the corruption in South Africa’s halls of power, which took place in the previous book in the series. · Setting: Cape Town and the outlying small city of Stellenbosch in South Africa · Context: This the 8th in a series (of 8) that began in 2008. Meyer is South African; the book is translated from Afrikaans. · % of Amazon readers giving 5-star ratings: 75% · Combined % of Amazon readers giving either 4 OR 5-star ratings: 94% · Total all Amazon ratings this book: 294 Long Form SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF SOUTH AFRICA. A frustrated Vaughn Cupido looks at Benny Griessel. “Benna, just explain one thing to me: Where’s the logic? We live in a country with a huge crime rate, the SAPS has had the biggest brain drain and loss of experience in its history these past ten years, there’s a helluva problem with corruption in said Service, and they let the country’s two best former Hawks detectives search for a student on a binge weekend because his mobile was stolen. Where’s the logic?” “I’ve been thinking about that all weekend. There’s a snake in the grass, Vaughn,” says Griessel. Someone shot warrant-officer Milo April at the Cape Town Waterfront. In cold blood. In broad daylight. And maybe a senior officer of the South African Police Services ordered the execution. And maybe it’s connected to the mysterious letters warrant-officers Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido have been receiving. With hints of State Capture shenanigans. But to their great frustration, they have to waste their precious time searching for a missing student, probably just another kid on a crazy weekend bender. And mega-rich Jasper Boonstra, the notorious corporate swindler, asks Sandra Steenberg to sell Donkerdrif, the very, very expensive wine estate, on the quiet. Sandra, mother of two, wife to author Josef, needs the money badly. She is drowning in debt, stuck in a web of deceit. But the transaction goes awry fast, and now Griessel and Cupido are investigating her too. As they slowly make progress, the detectives realize that the cases are connected by the darkest passion of all: Greed. -------- Finalist 2023 Barry Award for Best Novel “Excellent.”—Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine “A fast-moving South African police procedural . . . The plotlines are tightly knitted together, and the story ends with a nifty twist. A well-crafted blend of suspense, culture, and humor. Meyer is terrific.”—Kirkus Reviews(starred review) “Absorbing procedural details lead to an explosive confrontation with a ruthless street gang and a police-corruption scheme that links South African Police Service to the country’s devastating political scandals. It’s a grim period for South Africa, but Griessel and Caputo remain loyal to justice and to each other. A gritty but surprisingly hopeful installment in Meyer’s immensely popular series.”—Booklist “[An] outstanding series . . . In word, deed, and spirit, Mr. Meyer’s humane and engaging characters are indeed among ‘the best of the best.’”—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal, on The Last Hunt “Deon Meyer is one of the unsung masters.”—Michael Connelly I read this book because, as indicated below, it is one of the [five] finalists for "Best Mystery or Crime Novel" of the year (published in 2022). I have read some of the others on the list also, including Michael Connelly's offering for last year, Desert Star. Both are high quality books. I am voting for Meyer's book because, all things being nearly equal, I preferred the ending in The Dark Flood by Meyer. There is some adjusting to unfamiliar words, like "State Capture," which you can find in Wikipedia, and a few other words unique to South Africa that the translator didn't translate. Yet still, despite that, I found the book a pleasure worth reading. –Dick Awards for this Book § Finalist 2023 Barry Award for Best Novel