James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
Hugo Swart, faithful churchgoer and respected citizen, is found stabbed to death on the floor of his kitchen just before Christmas, on the hottest night of the year. If Mr. Swart's Reverend is to be believed, no one in the world could have a reason to kill him; the murder was most likely a robbery gone ugly, and the chief suspect is Swart's black servant, Shabalala, who has fled to the countryside. But Lieutenant Kramer suspects that not everything is as it seems. While Zondi pursues Shabalala in what turns out to be a treacherous tour of miserable outlying Bantu villages, Kramer tries to wring the truth out of some of Swart's acquaintances in Trekkersburg and Cape Town -- it seems not everyone liked the victim quite as much as the Reverend did. But danger lies at every turn -- what will this investigation cost the duo?

McClure's merciless depiction of 1970s South Africa, its many layers of racism, and the gaps between rich and poor make this perhaps the most devourable book in the Kramer and Zondi series yet.

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781569479438 (June, 2011), 211 p., $14.00, eBook $9.99.

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool (UK 1993)

From the Publisher:
Who would want to kill Hugo Swart, by all accounts a quiet civil employce and pious young bachelor? To Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his Bantu assistant, Sergeant Mickey Zondi, the case looks straightforward: Swart's manservant did it. But there are no easy answers this time - only a growing conviction that the risks involved in nabbing Swart's killer may be greater than they ever imagined.

'So good you really don't want it to come to an end, and so carefully and trickily plotted you will never guess the outcome beforehand.' Publishers Weekly

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool. A Kramer and Zondi Mystery. Faber & Faber, ISBN: 0571164943 (November, 1993), 192 p., £4.99.

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool (USA 1983)

From the Publisher:
Who would want to kill Hugo Swart, by all accounts a quiet civil employee and pious young bachelor? To I jeuten-ant Tromp Kramer and his Bantu assistant, Mickey Zondi, the case looks straightforward: Swart's manservant did it. But there are no easy answers this time-only a growing conviction that the risks involved in nabbing Swart's killer may be greater than they ever imagined.

"So good you really don't want it to come to an end, and so carefully and trickily plotted you will never guess the out-come beforehand." -- Publishers Weekly
"Deft plotting." -- New York Times
"Neat surprises...most lively narration." -- San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle
"Compassion, sex, and a thumping finale.... The story gallops A mystery addict's perfect fix." -- Baltimore News-American
"A fascinating book not to be missed." -- Library Journal

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool. Pantheon International Crime, ISBN: 0394710592 (July, 1983), 192 p., $2.95.

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool (UK 1982)

From the Publisher:
CHRISTMAS IS A BAD TIME FOR KRAMER - IT GETS WORSE WHEN A PILLAR OF THE PARISH CHURCH IS FOUND BRUTALLY MURDERED
Hugo Swart entered purgatory just after nine o'clock on the hottest night of the year. A steak knife dispatched him. No fingerprints. No suspects. The heat was on the Trekkersburg Murder Squad.

'Afrikaner fuzz Trompie Kramer and Zulu sidekick Sergeant Zondi are the most entertaining double act in recent years' - Guardian
'This is a thriller, and a detective story, of great distinction' - Oxford Times
'Mr McClure is a real original' - Financial Times

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1982, ISBN: 0140041966, 191 p., £1.25.

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool (UK 1976)

From the Publisher:
Hugo Swart entered purgatory just after nine o'clock on the hottest night of the year. A steak knife dispatched him. No fingerprints. No suspects. The heat was on the Trekkersburg Murder Squad.

'Afrikaner fuzz Trompie Kramer and Zulu sidekick Sergeant Zondi are the most entertaining double act in recent years' - Guardian
'This is a thriller, and a detective story, of great distinction' - Oxford Times
'Mr McClure is a real original' - Financial Times

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool. Penguin Books, ISBN: 0140041966 (August, 1976), 191 p., 60p.

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool (USA 1975)

From the Publisher:
CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
Death brought a rather unexpected climax to staid, upright Hugo Swart's Yule celebration. But a bottle of vodka concealed in the late Mr. Swart's vegetable bin was almost as much of a surprise as the murder itself -- for Mr. Swart was known never to touch the stuff. As Lt. Trompie Kramer, of the Trekkersburg murder squad, and his Bantu assistant Sgt. Zondi probed the case further, it seemed that there was much unknown about the murdered Mr. Swart. And the search for answers would lead Kramer and Zondi across a troubled South African countryside, through a web of pain, suspicion, and death.

"A mystery addict's perfect fix... There is humor, compassion, sex, and a thumping finale... The story gallops!" -- BALTIMORE NEWS-AMERICAN

"McClure does more than fashion a good mystery, although he never forgets to do that... McClure has written another substantial mystery with a powerful view of life in contemporary South Africa, full-bodied characters, some very funny and some very sad scenes." -- WASHINGTON POST

James McClure: The Gooseberry Fool. Avon Books #27060, ISBN: 0380005387 (November, 1975), 220 p., $1.50.