book bites
Bad Monkey ★★★★ Carl Hiaasen (Little Brown, R240)
With Hiaasen, you get exactly what it says on the box: manic screwball crime caper. Lately, there’d been a zany-by-rote predictability to his Florida noir, but Bad Monkey is a return to the form of Skin Tight and Tourist Season. Plot-wise, it’s like a rum cocktail bender: Andrew Yancy, a policeman busted down to restaurant inspector, believes that solving the mystery surrounding a severed human arm found on a fishing cruise will get him his badge back. Add to this a teacher convicted of extorting sex from a teenaged pupil, murderous real estate developers and the monkey of the title (fired from a Johnny Depp movie after masturbating into the wigs) and it’s mayhem that comes together neatly for the third act. — Andrew Donaldson @RidgeMahogany
Call it Dog ★★★ Marli Roode (Atlantic Books, R240)
The shocking realities of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, as well as the ideological differences between older and younger generations, are explored in this gripping debut. Though the protagonist, Jo, a returnee to South Africa, is somewhat one-dimensional and caricatured — too PC, too credulous, too heroic — the overall complexities of life here, and the strange, contradictory behaviour of our people, are thoroughly explored in Roode’s narrative. A worthwhile read. — Chantelle Gray van Heerden @CGrayvH
How to Parachute into a Moving Car (Vital Survival Tips for the Modern Man)
★★★ Top Gear (Random House Struik, R190)
Like the ubiquitous TV show, this “self-help” guide makes no bones that it’s a selfindulgent load of ... fun ... put together because it entertained the Top Gear threesome and therefore will give a good chuckle to everyone else on the planet, too. It promises to “solve problems by applying the unique brand of Top Gear logic to a range of everyday situations”. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and some surprisingly solid advice — but these are counter-balanced by utter nonsense in equal quantity. Skip “How To Play Car Sauna”. — Jennifer Platt @jenniferdplatt