Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Icarus by Deon Meyer

I continued my armchair travels a couple of weeks ago by reading Icarus (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015) by South African author Deon Meyer, who has been on my reading list for awhile. Ernst Richter was the inventor and CEO of the controversial South African firm Alibi, an organization that arranged, for a fee, a concrete cover-up for matrimonial cheaters. Hotel receipts and conference credentials could be produced that were indistinguishable from the originals, and telephone calls supposedly from managers requesting the presence of the marital double-dealer at the office could be made at times specified. Rock-solid anonymity of the firm’s clients was of course guaranteed. Richter and his company were media darlings so his disappearance was a shock to everyone who knew him. The discovery of his body three weeks later in a sandy grave struck a seismic blow to his company and his reputation.

Assigned to the case is alcoholic Detective Captain Benny Griessel of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations, Violent Crimes Group, in Capetown, South Africa, who is on the wagon but still struggling hard with sobriety. The Violent Crimes Group has a new commander and everyone is anxious to make a good impression while they take the Major’s measure, especially Griessel’s partner Cupido Vaughan who has been given the task as team leader of the investigation.

Alternating chapters with those describing the work of the police to discover Richter’s killer is a lengthy description of one family’s history in South African winemaking. It is a fascinating discussion, particularly because South Africa is not one of the countries I associate with wine making. However interesting the story is, its purpose is not immediately clear as it does not connect to the crime until quite late in the book but connect it does in a dramatic fashion.

This is the fifth book in Meyer’s series about Griessel and his colleagues. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and it was a finalist for the 2016 CWA International Dagger Award and the 2016 Nielsen Booksellers’ Choice Award. It was named a Best Book of the Year by the Boston Globe and Financial Times.

·         Hardcover: 352 pages

·         Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; Translation edition (October 6, 2015)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 0802124003

·         ISBN-13: 978-0802124005

Aubrey Hamilton ©2019

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.