James McClure: Snake (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
Lieutenant Kramer and Sergeant Zondi have their hands full. On the same day that an adult entertainer known as Eve is found accidentally strangled to death in her dressing room, her pet python wrapped dead around her neck, a beloved candy shop owner named "Lucky" Siyayo is shot to death at his counter in a botched robbery. The detective duo quickly realize neither death is as simple as it looks on the surface: Lucky Siyayo's cash register was all but empty the day he was murdered, which suddenly throws a whole rash of fatal neighborhood robberies into perspective -- were none of them robberies at all? It becomes clear a killer is on the loose, but Zondi and Kramer must figure out what the killer is after.

Meanwhile, postmortem analysis reveals that Eve didn't die at the time her ex-boss had stated he'd discovered her body; the more Kramer picks the circumstances apart, the less they make sense. With two very different sets of crimes to solve, Kramer and Zondi set off on treks that take them all over town, from the poorer villages to the sleazy dressing rooms of con artists and pimps to gorgeous steop of the South African countryside in another surefire investigation full of both stirring observations of Apartheid and plenty of mischief. Only one thing is for sure -- no one is getting to take his day off this week!

James McClure: Snake. Soho Press, ISBN: 9781569479681 (August, 2011), 217 p., $14.00, eBook $9.99.

James McClure: Snake (UK 1994)

From the Publisher:
A sultry exotic dancer named Eve is found strangled by her dancing partner, a python. As detectives search for the human reptile capable of this murder, other murders and events around town have everyone baffled. Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and Sergeant Mickey Zondi investigate.

James McClure: Snake. A Kramer and Zondi Mystery. Faber & Faber, ISBN: 0571168205 (February, 1994), 188 p., £4.99.

James McClure: Snake (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
"If you have not yet met Lieutenant Kramer of the Trekkersburg police and his Bantu assistant Sergeant Zondi, then start now." -T.J Binyon, Times Literary Supplement

Early Sunday morning a stripper is found dead in her dressing room, strangled by Clint, her pet snake. The next day a poor black storekeeper is killed during an apparent robbery. These two seemingly dissimilar cases become the center of a deadly investigation that takes Kramer and Zondi from the poorest villages to the most exclusive circles of South African society.

"The seedbed of future good fiction probably lies in the best of current crime writing, the best novels about South Africa today are McClure's stories about the Trekkersburg police" - London Sunday Times

"McClure has given us, in effect, a series of exotic pro-cedurals marked by fine writing and careful plotting." - New York Times

"James McClure never writes just another murder mystery. He also is showing just what happens to people under apartheid." - New Republic

All of James McClure's South African crime novels appear in Pantheon editions.

James McClure: Snake. Pantheon International Crime, ISBN: 039472304X (March, 1985), 188 p., $2.95.

James McClure: Snake (UK 1981)

From the Publisher:
'If you have not yet met Lieutenant Kramer of the Trekkersburg police and his Zulu sergeant Zondi, then start now, as they investigate simultaneously two very different cases: the death of a stripper found in her dressing room with Clint, her pet snake (a fine example of python regius), wound round her neck; and the murder and robbery of a number of small traders in Peacevale, Trekkersburg's black suburb... Snake is just as ingenious, well constructed, rudely witty and exciting as the previous three novels and, like them, throws some unexpected light on South African life' -- The Times Literary Supplement

James McClure: Snake. Penguin Books, ISBN: 0140044728 (November, 1981), 192 p., £1.25.

James McClure: Snake (UK 1977)

From the Publisher:
'If you have not yet met Lieutenant Kramer of the Trekkersburg police and his Zulu sergeant Zondi, then start now, as they investigate simultaneously two very different cases: the death of a stripper found in her dressing room with Clint, her pet snake (a fine example of python regius), wound round her neck; and the murder and robbery of a number of small traders in Peacevale, Trekkersburg's black suburb... Snake is just as ingenious, well constructed, rudely witty and exciting as the previous three novels and, like them, throws some unexpected light on South African life' -- The Times Literary Supplement

'The South African scene, portrayed with documentary vividness, is as fascinating as ever... And on the purely crime fictional level McClure also happens to be doing for it -- and for the South African cops -- what Ed McBain has been doing for New York and the men of the 87th Precinct' -- Anthony Price in the Oxford Mail

James McClure: Snake. Penguin Books, ISBN: 0140044728 (November, 1977), 192 p., 80p.

James McClure: Snake (USA 1977)

From the Publisher:
SERPENT IN EDEN
Or so it appears when a sultry exotic dancer named Eve is found strangled by her dancing partner, a sinuous python.
As detectives search for the human reptile capable of such a murder, other events around town -- questionable deaths, bloody robberies, and a prison suicide -- have everyone baffled.

But for Lt. Tromp Kramer and his Bantu assistant Sgt. Mickey Zondi, an unmistakable pattern emerges -- one that promises to link these seemingly unrelated incidents in a single case as complex, as bizarre, as any ever tackled by the ingenious pair.

"Devastating... one of his very best puzzlers" -- CHICAGO NEWS

"He gives us both barrels...ending with a bang" -- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE & EXAMINER

James McClure: Snake. Avon Books, ISBN: 0380016834 (July, 1977), 188 p., $1.50.

James McClure: Snake (USA 1976)

From the Publisher:
EMILY HAHN says of Snake: "I enjoyed it thoroughly, which is natural because I have admired [McClure] ever since I first encountered his books. He is really something new in the field."

STANLEY ELLIN says: "McClure's plotting, characterization, and mordant view of South African society make Snake one of his best."

The London Sunday Times says: "The seedbed of future good fiction probably lies in the best of current crime writing; the best novels about South Africa today are McClure's stories about the Trekkersburg police."

The Times Literary Supplement says: "Snake is just as ingenious, well constructed, rudely witty and exciting as the previous novels and, like them, throws some unexpected light on South African life."

Eve defied death twice nightly -- except Sundays -- on stage in her act at the Wigwam, a Trekkersburg nightclub. But when Eve died suddenly it was backstage, in her dressing room. She had, apparently, been strangled by her pet snake, Clint.

Songqoza Sishanagane Shepstone Siyayo, known as Lucky, the owner of a small candy store, got himself murdered at about the same time.

Two jobs for Lieutenant Tromp Kramer, of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad, and his Bantu assistant, Mickey Zondi.
Solving Eve's murder took the police into Trekkersburg's Natural History Museum, and Lucky's murder led them out into the South African countryside and into the poorer parts of town.

And, as usual, James McClure holds up to the light the evil and the cruelties and the prejudices that make up so much of today's South Africa while he tells an enthralling story, and introduces you to some people you'll long remember.

James McClure: Snake. A Harper Novel of Supense. New York: Harper & Row, 1976, ISBN: 0060128844, 216 p., $7.95.