Book Bite

The Woman in the Blue Cloak ★★★ Deon Meyer, Hodder & Stoughton, R195

One of the great things about Deon Meyer’s work, aside from his infallible ear for the nuances of South African life and his masterful plots, is that they are satisfyingly fat books. Buy a Meyer and you’ve got the whole weekend sorted.

The Woman in the Blue Cloak, however, is a novella, weighing in at a mere 26,000 words and was written on invitation for the 2017 Week of the Thriller in the Netherlands. It’s a challenging format, since there just isn’t the same space to build plot and character.

Meyer writing a novella is a bit like a worldclass marathon runner entering the 100m. It is interestingly eccentric but one would be naive to expect a gold medal performance. And so it is with this offering: a pleasing vignette of our favourite cop, dry alcoholic Benny Griessel, but just not enough meat to be anything more than an appetiser. ● L S. William Saunderson-Meyer

@TheJaundicecEye