Dead Before Dying - Couverture souple

An impressively tangled web and taut narrative keeps the reader guessing until the last couple of pages (Heat***)

A plot-driven page-turner...Joubert is a haunted yet sympathetic protagonist (Bookpage)

Meyer subtly juxtaposes the heartbreak of the victims' families with the heartbroken detective assigned to their cases. Using humour and pathos in equal measure, Meyer builds a deeply moving portrait of a man in search of his own dignity (Booklist (Starred Review))

The atmosphere of a hot, turbulent country is very vividly evoked, and the characterisation is dynamic enough to make the familiar plot come up as fresh as paint. A striking debut novel (Crime Time)

Hooked me right from the start...a thriller with some weight attached and that is a rare find (Michael Connelly on HEART OF THE HUNTER)

Out of post-apartheid South Africa comes a thriller good enough to nip at the heels of le Carré ... Wonderful setting; rich, colourful cast (Kirkus Reviews*, on HEART OF THE HUNTER)

A brilliant book. Deon Meyer does an excellent job of developing a whole range of characters who are affected by the changes in South Africa in different ways. And Thobela, a giant of a man in search of redemption, is a wonderful hero. (Michael Ridpath, author of THE PREDATOR, on HEART OF THE HUNTER)

Like post-war Germany, post-apartheid South Africa offers fertile ground for reflective fiction ... Senior editor at Little, Brown, Judy Clain, a fellow South African, says, "Meyer has an extraordinary landscape - a changed world where the ghosts of the past play a huge role." (Publishers Weekly, on HEART OF THE HUNTER)

With simmering racial tensions, a bounty of natural resources, and a government whose members worked both sides of the cold-war fence, South Africa should prove fertile ground for many fine spy thrillers to come. Don't be surprised if quite a few of them are written by Meyer. (Booklist*, on HEART OF THE HUNTER)

Mat Joubert was one of the rising stars of the South African police force, a cop on the fast-track to the future. Not only that; to his eternal incomprehension - and despite chronic ineptness around the opposite sex - he had managed to marry a fascinating, beautiful and intelligent woman. A rosy future beckoned.

Then she was killed, and with her his hopes and his career gradually died. Alcoholic, overweight and depressed, he is frittering away his life.

But now, there is a new killer in town, one who strikes with terrifying randomness - the method is bizarre and the motive inexplicable. Mat is drawn into the case and he soon starts to realise that this could very well be his last chance to lay the ghosts of his past.