Icarus - (Benny Griessel Mysteries) by Deon Meyer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In the latest thriller from internationally acclaimed writer Deon Meyer, Captain Benny Griessel is forced to take a case involving a controversial tech figure while coping with the death of a colleague.

Shortlisted for the 2016 CWA International Dagger Award
Shortlisted for the 2016 Nielsen Booksellers' Choice Award
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
Named a Best Book of the Year by the Boston Globe and Financial Times
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Audiobooks of 2015

Deon Meyer, South Africa's preeminent crime fiction writer, is internationally acclaimed for his razor's-edge thrillers, unforgettable characters, and nuanced portrayals of contemporary life in his native country. The latest pulse-pounder starring Captain Benny Griessel, a lead detective in South Africa's Priority Crimes Investigation unit, delves into a high-profile murder case and the country's burgeoning tech and wine industries.

A week before Christmas, a young photographer discovers a plastic-wrapped corpse amidst the sand dunes north of Cape Town. It doesn't take long for the police to identify the body as that of Ernst Richter--the tech whiz and founder of Alibi, an internet service that provides unfaithful partners with sophisticated cover stories to hide their affairs. Meanwhile, Benny Griessel is called to the scene of a murder-suicide involving a former colleague, and 602 days of sobriety are undone on the spot. He seems determined to drink away his career, but the take-no-sass Major Mbali Kaleni, now his boss, wants Griessel on the Richter case. The murder has already been the subject of fierce media speculation, with questions swirling about the potential for motive: could the perpetrator be one of the countless jilted spouses? An aggrieved client? Before the week is out, an unexpected connection to a troubled family winery comes to light, and Griessel must either quit drinking and close the case, or risk losing everything he loves. Mounting towards a startling conclusion, Icarus is another first-rate novel from the "King of South African Crime."

Review Quotes

Praise for Icarus:

Shortlisted for the 2016 CWA International Dagger Award
Shortlisted for the 2016 Nielsen Booksellers' Choice Award
Named a Best Book of the Year by the Boston Globe and Financial Times
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Audiobooks of 2015

"Deon Meyer's name on the cover is a guarantee of crime writing at its best."--Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Playing with Fire

"South African author Deon Meyer's Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, Icarus, is his best yet . . . [An] expertly engineered tale of sex, lies, and fraud."--Guardian (Best Recent Crime Fiction Novels)

"Excellent . . . The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Deon Meyer's South Africa is laid bare in Icarus; it is as glittering and hard as the diamonds his country is famous for . . . Meyer utilizes the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country."--Independent (UK)

"Meyer delivers another expertly crafted thriller that feels exceptionally timely."--Booklist

"Meyer's prose is muscular yet beautifully rendered. A meticulously crafted portrait of modern-day South Africa, Icarus is a spellbinding tour de force."--New York Journal of Books

"Rapid pacing, likable characters . . . Irresistible . . . A complex thriller."--Shelf Awareness

"Present[s] an unvarnished picture of the social divisions in post-apartheid South Africa."--Financial Times (Best Books of 2015)

Praise for Deon Meyer:

"With Deon Meyer you can't go wrong. He's a writer whose work I admire, wait for and then devour."--Michael Connelly

"I love Meyer. . . . The problem with having Meyer on your nightstand is that you don't get any sleep. So if I look like hell, it's Meyer's fault. The guy owes me."--Don Winslow, author of The Power of the Dogs and Savages

"Meyer has a fine eye for people and places. . . . Meyer is a serious writer who richly deserves the international reputation he has built."--Washington Post

"Meyer's thrillers . . . well understand the need to maintain momentum: mixing and matching multiple viewpoints, switching off between characters and portraying his native country as one in a perpetual state of flux and angst."--Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Deon Meyer is the internationally acclaimed, prize-winning author of ten thrillers including Cobra, Seven Days, and the Barry Award-winning Thirteen Hours. His books have been published in more than twenty-five languages. He lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa.