James McClure: The Artful Egg (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
Naomi Stride was a wealthy woman, and her death has left several people richer -- none more so than her twenty-six-year-old son Theo, with whom she had long had bitter differences over money. She was also a controversial woman, a writer whose novels had been banned in South Africa. But was it for money, politics, or some other unknown reason that she was killed? And why was her naked corpse strewn with flowers and herbs? These are the questions South African Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his Zulu partner, Mickey Zondi, must answer. But this task becomes much more difficult when Kramer is unexpectedly taken off the case. Ordered by his superiors to discreetly "wrap up" a fatal accident that could be embarrassing for the South African police, he is plunged into a second investigation, and (fighting to keep it free of political whitewash) he and Zondi find themselves moving inexorably toward a haunting and horrifying climax.

James McClure: The Artful Egg. A Kramer and Zondi Investigation set in South Africa. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781616952457 (February, 2013), 316 p., $14.95, eBook $9.99.

James McClure: The Artful Egg (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
Someone out there is crazy. Crazy enough to kill a world-famous novelist and then strew her naked body with flowers and herbs. Or is there method in this modness? That's the question South African Police Lieutenant Tromp Kromer and his Zulu partner, Sergeant Mickey Zondi, must answer in James McClure's most gripping story yet.

Naomi Stride was a wealthy woman, and her death has left several people richer-nane mare so than her twenty-six-year-old son Thea, with whom she had long had bitter "differences over money. She was also a controversial woman, a writer whose novels had been banned in South Africa. But was it for money, politics, or some other, unknown reason that Noomi Stride was killed? That is what Kramer and Zondi must discover- task that becomes much more difficult, perhaps impossible, when Kramer is unexpectedly taken off the case. Ordered by his superiors to discreetly "wrap up" o fatal excident that has embarrassing implications for the South African police, he is plunged into a second investigation, and (fighting to keep it free of a political whitewash) he and Zondi find themselves moving inexorably toward a haunting and horrifying climax.

James McClure: The Artful Egg. Pantheon Books, ISBN: 0394534727 (March, 1985), 283 p., $13.95.