Memo from Turner

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.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2019 Booklist

Willocks (Green River Rising) holds nothing back in this impressive crime novel featuring a relentless and incorruptible black South African police officer. Cape Town Warrant Officer Radebe Turner comes across the corpse of an unidentified teenage black girl in Nyanga township, "a competitor for the title of highest crime neighborhood on the continent." The girl was the victim of a hit-and-run, and Turner is determined to bring those responsible to justice, a task made easier by a smartphone left behind at the scene. He soon identifies the white men involved in the crime, who include Jason Britz, the nephew of a police sergeant, and Dirk Le Roux, the son of millionaire Margo Le Roux, a powerful woman credited with creating hundreds of jobs and a supporter of the African National Congress. Despite his superior's resistance to the inquiry, and the lack of cooperation from the authorities in Le Roux's hometown, Turner persists, refusing to be bought or frightened off the case. Fans of the gritty and gory work of James Ellroy and Paul Cleave will appreciate Willocks. Agent: Albert Zuckerman, Writers House. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.