Utu
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A New Zealand detective searches the Maori underworld for his friend’s killer in this Gran Prix Sang d’Encre-winning novel by the author of Zulu.
Former New Zealand detective Paul Osborne has washed up in Sydney, where he has a bad case of sunstroke and an even worse reputation at the local bars. But now his former boss from the Auckland City Police Department wants him back on the job. Osborne’s only real friend on the force, Jack Fitzgerald, has committed suicide in the middle of an important investigation. Despite his current state, Osborne is the only one qualified to take over the case.
Though has no interest in playing policeman, he returns to Auckland all the same—because he’s sure Fitzgerald’s death was no suicide. An expert in Maori culture, Osborne retraces his dead friend’s steps into a world of occult mystery, tribal discontent, billion-dollar backroom deals, and political corruption.
In the Maori language, “utu” means revenge. In this gripping crime novel, the desire for revenge runs deep—and nobody, innocent and guilty alike, will be safe until it has been sated.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers should be prepared for graphic scenes of shocking violence in F rey's hard-hitting procedural, which won France's Grand Prix for Best Crime Novel. Ali Neuman, the chief of the Cape Town police crime unit, investigates the murder of 18-year-old Nicole Wiese, found one morning in the South African city's botanical gardens with her skull crushed in. Since the victim's father was a member of the Springboks rugby team that won the world championship in 1995, the case attracts heavy press coverage. The trail leads Neuman to an extraordinarily brutal narcotics gang with links to a former apartheid official. The good guys don't walk away from their encounters with the bad guys unscathed. This is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of crime books set in South Africa powerful and unflinching in its portrayal of evil both mindless and calculating.