James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
Six days into their search for a man who put a .32-caliber bullet into a South African antique dealer, neither Kramer of the Murder Squad nor his Bantu assistant, Zondi, has a single lead in the case. On the seventh day, Mrs. Digby-Smith opens the trunk of her car and discovers the hideous, tied-up corpse of her younger brother. Two violent crimes -- seemingly unconnected. But as Kramer and Zondi pursue their investigation, startling connections turn up in the sordid underworld of Terkkersburg and in the secret, unresolved enmities of World War II.

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman. A Kramer and Zondi Investigation set in South Africa. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781616951061 (April, 2012), 316 p., $14.00, eBook $9.99.

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
Six days into their search for the man who put a .32-caliber bullet into a South African antique dealer, neither Kramer of the Murder Squad nor his Bantu assistant, Zondi, has a single lead in the case. On the seventh day, Mrs. Digby-Smith opens the trunk of her car and discovers the hideous, tied-up corpse of her younger brother. Two violent crimes -- seemingly unconnected. But as Kramer and Zondi pursue their investigation, startling connections turn up in the sordid underworld of Trekkersburg and in the secret, unresolved enmities of World War II.

"An altogether superior piece of work... McClure's ability to create convincing characters, a wry sense of humor, and the rather exotic locale [puts this series] at the top of its class." Newgate Callander, The New York Times

"The concluding scene is one rarely matched for slashing irony and sheer impact." Publishers Weekly

"This well-plotted, well-written murder mystery is exceptional... sometimes grim, sometimes sourly comic, always shocking." Atlantic Monthly

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman. Pantheon Crime, ISBN: 0394710193 (March, 1980), 270 p., $2.95.

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman (USA 1980)

From the Publisher:
It was Droopy Stephenson, the garage mechanic, who discovered the hideous, tied-up corpse in the stuck trunk of highly cultured Mrs. Lillian Digby-Smith's elegant car when he hit the trunk open with a spanner.

Lt. Tromp Kramer of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad was summoned at once, since it seemed very clear that someone had committed a murder. And the Lieutenant quickly summoned his assistant, Bantu Detective Mickey Zondi.

The murder had many serious ramifications -- especially when it was es-tablished that the dead man was well known locally, that he was Mrs. Digby-Smith's younger brother (a middle-aged man named Bonzo Hookham, the not entirely strait-laced member of a well-known local family). The case attracted much local attention, following as it did the attempted shooting of a man named Bradshaw by a man the victim described as a homicidal giant.

Two violent crimes -- seemingly unconnected, but as that skilled team of South African policemen Kramer and Zondi began their investigations, connections turned up, some of them in Jonty's high-class socialite beauty parlour and some of them leading back to World War II.

JAMES MCCLURE is a much heralded author, with a devoted following. This is one of his most impressive and exciting novels.

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman. A Kramer and Zondi Novel. New York: Joan Khan Book / Harper & Row, 1980, ISBN: 0060130466, 270 p., $10.95.

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman (UK 1980)

From the Publisher:
There's a giant on the loose - a homicidal giant attacking blameless citizens at random - or so one of its victims claims. But Lieutenant Tromp Kramer of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad remains unimpressed, dismissing the very idea as the stuff of fairy tales.

But one morning, when Kramer is busy questioning Mongoose, the diminutive psychopath, Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi brings him news of a gruesome find. An English visitor to South Africa lies murdered, and his injuries point decisively to a gigantic killer possessed of hideous strength.

The celebrated detective team of Afrikaner and Zulu soon faces a seemingly impenetrable problem. A murderer so out of the ordinary should be easy enough to find, yet proves as elusive as Mr Average - while the pressure to make an arrest grows apace.

All Kramer manages to make is a terrible fool of himself, so he retreats into the comforting arms of his new love, a delectable English immigrant named Tish. It takes the indefatigable Zondi finally to bring him back into the action, which builds up to a bombshell of a climax.

James McClure's Kramer and Zondi novels are widely read and recognised as something very special in the development of detective fiction. This is a particularly fine example in which each character in a large cast is sharply depicted, each is intriguing and stimulating. It is also laced throughout with high spirits and robust humour, adding force to a most gripping mystery.

James McClure: The Blood of an Englishman. A Kramer and Zondi Novel. Macmillan, ISBN: 0333286103 (July, 1980), 270 p., £5.50.