Hunting for a serial killer – and a front-page story

WHEN you read an interesting newspaper article do you give a thought to who wrote it, or what it took to gather the information? If your penchant is to follow crime stories, the name Janine Lazarus may be familiar to you.

She made her name as one of the country’s finest true-crime investigative journalists back in the early 1990s, working for The Star, Saturday Star and Sunday Star.

In her book, Bait – To catch a killer, she takes the reader on the reporting beat with her, particularly on one case – that of the Norwood Serial Killer in Johannesburg. The books shows the extraordinary and brave lengths she went to to get the story.

“During the early 1990s the crime-reporting beat was not regarded with the same esteem that political journalism attracted. It was deemed just a few notches above the bum end of the news hierarchy.”

Lazarus’s harrowing years covering crime began to take an emotional toll and led to her putting down her journalistic pen forever.

Bait provides much detail and insight into the world of aserial killer and Kobus Geldenhuys, the Norwood killer, in particular. This is not a Hollywood gloss version of that world and Lazarus was far from the big-screen image of a crime journalist.

The vivid depiction of the newsroom of the 1990s and some of the era’s personalities, and Lazarus’s notafraid-to-get-her-hands-dirty approach to her craft are Bait’s powerful core.

Reading about the price Lazarus paid for those crime journalist years is both moving and distressing. It should hopefully bring readers’ awareness of who writes what they read into sensitive focus.

Bait is powerful stuff and must have been challenging for Lazarus to write. I am glad she did; it makes for a gripping read. |