James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop (USA 2010)

From the Publisher:
When a twelve-year-old boy is found strangled to death with multiple stab wounds, his killer is assumed to be a pedophile. Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his sidekick, Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi begin to investigate and soon learn that the boy had been involved in a detective club that encouraged children to spy and snitch on people, and no one likes a snitch. Whom was Boetie spying on? As the two men look into possible leads on the case, they must also navigate increasing tensions surrounding racism in the ’70s in South Africa, and Kramer finds himself on the receiving end of much of the hatred himself.

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop. A Kramer and Zondi Mystery Set in South Africa. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781569476536 (August, 2010), 264 p., $14.00, eBook $9.99.

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop (UK 1992)

From the Publisher:
When a twelve-year-old boy is found strangled and hideously mutilated it looks like the work of a sex killer.
There are some bizarre clues: tangerine lipstick, a coded message, an accidental drowning, the death of a dog, and a sliced caterpillar... Lieutenant Kramer of the Trekkersburg Murder Squad and his Zulu colleague, Sergeant Zondi, really have to, sweat it out before the facts make any kind of sense.

"James McClure provides not only action, pace, excitement and similar old-hat stuff, but more sense, more insight, more feeling, more about what it must be like in South Africa, more wit, more ingenuity, more craftsmanship, more art than you could find displayed by the sort of writer you see lengthily and respectfully reviewed in a month of Sundays (and of weeklies and dailies too)." Kingsley Amis

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop. A Kramer and Zondi Mystery. London: Faber & Faber, 1992, ISBN: 0571164951, 251 p., £4.99.

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
Faced with the mysterious and brutal death of a young Afrikaner boy, Detective Kramer and his Bantu assistant, Zondi, realize that they will have to cast aside all their fundamental assumptions about the society in which they live if they hope to crack their most difficult, and unforgettable, case yet.

"McClure's new novel not only presents again a complex and intriguing society and fascinating characters but also offers a topnotch mystery that enthralls and enlightens every exciting step of the way." Judith Crist

"[A] powerful tale of passion and repression... an earthy, explosive story." - Cleveland Plain Dealer

"McClure's first novel...was one of the most memorable books in the genre last year... The Caterpillar Cop may prove to be even better." - Newsday

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop. Pantheon International Crime, ISBN: 0394710584 (July, 1982), 224 p., $2.95.

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop (USA 1974)

From the Publisher:
Tennis Anyone?
It was love-all as Jonathan Rogers, a local tennis star, and pretty Penny Jones settled back on his dinner jacket under the waving palms of the Trekkersburg Country Club. Then, at the worst possible moment, Jonathan spied a face in the shrub bery, and leapt to his feet to take action. But how hard can you hit a corpse? Lieutenant Trompie Kramer, of the Trekkersburg murder squad, and his Bantu assistant, Sgt. Zondi, had to solve the bizarre and senseless murder, which seemed to tie in with the apparently accidental drowning of an American teenager. It was a baffling case... with a caterpillar as the key.

"McClure's new novel not only presents again a complex and intriguing society and fascinating characters but also offers a top notch mystery that enthralls and enlightens every exciting step of its ultra-satisfying way!" -- JUDITH CRIST

"The pace is fast, the solution ingenious... everything flows beautifully..." -- THE NEW YORK TIMES

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop. Avon Books #20867, ISBN: 0380001535 (November, 1974), 224 p., $1.25.

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop (USA 1973)

From the Publisher:
JUDITH CRIST says: "It's rare that a second book surpasses a first-rate first -- but McClure's new novel not only presents again a complex and intriguing society and fascinating characters but also offers a topnotch mystery that enthralls and enlightens every exciting step of its ultra-satisfying way. The now-familiar terrain comes to fresh life and the protagonists -- Lieutenant Kramer and Zondi -- are richer than ever. I'm not really prone to blurb and burble, but I haven't enjoyed a detective story so much in a long time -- not since the last McClure!"

Jonathan Rogers, a young, local tennis star, was making-or attempt-ing to make love to young Penny Jones, when he thought he saw someone watching, and charged off in pursuit of the intruder.

Which was how the murder of handsome twelve-year-old Boetie was discovered. The killing seemed bizarre and senseless.

Lieutenant Trompie Kramer of the South African police force and his Bantu assistant, Sergeant Mickey Zondi, went to work on the case. Which seemed to tie in with the apparently accidental death of an American teenager.

The Caterpillar Cop is not only a first-rate suspense story, but an insider's picture of a way of life.

JAMES MCCLURE, whose first novel, The Steam Pig, was heralded (see back of jacket), has done an equally exciting second novel.

James McClure: The Caterpillar Cop. A Joan Kahn-Harper Novel of Suspense. New York: Harper & Row, 1973, ISBN: 0060128976, 245 p., $5.95.