Leni Zumas's writing crackles. Her books are sharp, bleak, funny, and possibly dangerous. When her collection of short stories, Farewell Navigator,...
Continue »
I owe my interest in South African crime writers to Roger Smith. I was hooked with his first book, Mixed Blood, and I enjoyed Wake Up Dead even more. Smith's novel is set in Cape Town South Africa, mostly the Cape Flats area. It reminds us that apartheid ended less that 20 years ago and the effects of creating a dumping ground for non-whites are not going away any time soon. This is a tightly plotted, fast paced, and very violent crime thriller. Many thrillers are of the read and forget variety but Smith's books combine three criteria that make a book last for me: story, characters, and location. Wake Up Dead shows that the author has taken the lessons learned from writing his first book and produced a work that nails my three criteria. He doesn't sacrifice character for story instead he populates the book with well developed, interesting people that include common variety street thugs and ex-cons, a scary psychopath in love, a former model from the U.S named Roxy, and an ex-cop/ex-mercenary product of the Flats with the great name of Billy Afrika. Billy is back in town to get what is owed (legitimately) to him and Roxy is the means to that end. He is a little better than the forces he is up against but he has a depth that makes him intriguing. Smith keeps several plot threads working and the body count mounting as he brings everyone together for a satisfying ending. The location of the story is very important. The vivid descriptions of the Cape Flats area of Cape Town brought me forcefully into the story. The Flats were apartheid's dumping grounds, where the government forced non-whites to live. It is also home to gangs and drug trade. Think of the Baltimore of the HBO show, The Wire, only much more dangerous. Wake Up Dead does have scenes of brutal physical violence but the violence is a reflection of the environment and not there for its own sake. If you want to give yourself a taste of the local color you will find in the book, do an Internet search for "okapi 907e". This is a knife that plays an important part in the story and having a mental image will be a boost to the reading experience.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
Mack Lundy has commented on (1) product.
Wake Up Dead: A Thriller by Roger Smith
Mack Lundy, February 2, 2010
I owe my interest in South African crime writers to Roger Smith. I was hooked with his first book, Mixed Blood, and I enjoyed Wake Up Dead even more. Smith's novel is set in Cape Town South Africa, mostly the Cape Flats area. It reminds us that apartheid ended less that 20 years ago and the effects of creating a dumping ground for non-whites are not going away any time soon. This is a tightly plotted, fast paced, and very violent crime thriller. Many thrillers are of the read and forget variety but Smith's books combine three criteria that make a book last for me: story, characters, and location. Wake Up Dead shows that the author has taken the lessons learned from writing his first book and produced a work that nails my three criteria. He doesn't sacrifice character for story instead he populates the book with well developed, interesting people that include common variety street thugs and ex-cons, a scary psychopath in love, a former model from the U.S named Roxy, and an ex-cop/ex-mercenary product of the Flats with the great name of Billy Afrika. Billy is back in town to get what is owed (legitimately) to him and Roxy is the means to that end. He is a little better than the forces he is up against but he has a depth that makes him intriguing. Smith keeps several plot threads working and the body count mounting as he brings everyone together for a satisfying ending. The location of the story is very important. The vivid descriptions of the Cape Flats area of Cape Town brought me forcefully into the story. The Flats were apartheid's dumping grounds, where the government forced non-whites to live. It is also home to gangs and drug trade. Think of the Baltimore of the HBO show, The Wire, only much more dangerous. Wake Up Dead does have scenes of brutal physical violence but the violence is a reflection of the environment and not there for its own sake. If you want to give yourself a taste of the local color you will find in the book, do an Internet search for "okapi 907e". This is a knife that plays an important part in the story and having a mental image will be a boost to the reading experience.