Grim reality of cash heists in South Africa
is advocate and police reservist Andrew Brown’s chilling new novel dealing with the grim reality of cash-in-transit heists.
But, as we meet Andile Xaba, the on-the-ground man in charge of the heists, at a heist, we are also introduced to the grim reality that the crimes are run by shadowy men and syndicates. Xaba makes for a fascinating character. He has had the benefits of a good education, paid for by his domestic worker mother’s liberal employees.
He’s even spent a year at law school in Johannesburg, but with no support, apart from a bursary, his is the sad story of so many students who have been allowed places in universities with no thought of where they will live and who will support them. It makes his leaving university and entering the shadowy world of heist men even the more tragic. And, sadly, a very real story in South Africa.
Eberard Februarie we meet again when he wakes up hungover and pretty sure he is about to lose his job.
But, in a strange set of circumstances, when he is called into the office it is to receive a promotion and a posting that feels like a possibly poisoned chalice – he’s being sent with his sergeant to a new unit being set up to solve the outbreak of heists in Cape Town.
It’s a small unit that has been told to succeed. Problem is it is headed by a former apartheid-era
Colonel Braam Viljoen.
Andrew Brown is one of the best crime writers, and he has a unique history when looking at crime. He is an advocate, and has been a police reservist since 1999.
Given the suspicion and mistrust that Eberard feels about being in a unit headed by an apartheid-era cop, it’s also worth noting that Brown was arrested in 1980 for antiapartheid activities, and sentenced to jail. On appeal, the Cape High Court overturned the sentence and imposed community service instead.
Brown now practises as an advocate in the same High Court that heard his appeal.
His previous books are the novels Inyenzi, Coldsleep Lullaby, Refuge, Solace and Devil’s Harvest, as well as Street Blues, about his earlier experiences as a police reservist. He has won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and his work has been shortlisted for the Alan Paton Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa Region). He is married, with three children.
Eberard has the added stress of an ex-wife who is angry with him, and lives a bitter life. He feels he has let down his daughter Christine. In a literature mirror imaging, Andile is unsure about his co-gang members, and unnerved by the violence that is brewing. He also supports his mom, who longs for the day when her son will graduate as a lawyer. This layering of characters turns them from cyphers into real people.
A pacey novel, which examines redemption and evil. This is a story that will tear at your heart, and is written with a knowledge of how crime works, and about how reconciliation may be possible in some cases, if not all. Fantastic read.