This year's great discovery: classy, edgy writing, subtly plotted and beautifully balanced between fast-paced action, pungent social comment and the process of investigation.
Weekend Australian
Tells a cracking story and captures the criminal kaleidoscope of a nation.
Times Literary Supplement
Crime fiction with real texture and intelligence.
Independent
Deon Meyer's gritty crime novels [are] ... Read morepart police procedural, part political thriller . . . What makes Meyer such a national treasure - and as good as anyone in the world - is that even if you have no knowledge or interest in South Africa's history or present, his books are compelling page-turners. Politics and race are just part of the intricately crafted superstructure bolted onto the rock-solid chassis of a top-quality crime thriller, driven by a writer with deceptive skill.
Books Live
Deon Meyer is a top notch plotter and has created one of the best ensemble (and multi-racial) casts of any modern police procedural series.
Shots magazine
The narrative is well-plotted, and the novel brings to life the rich and volatile diversity of contemporary South Africa. There's nothing flashy here, just a good story, very well told. Would there were more like it.
Spectator
Praise for Deon Meyer
:
Every once in a while there comes along a writer, an already accomplished storyteller, who grows into the stature of a great writer through one wonderful story. That author is Deon Meyer; the story he has masterfully crafted is ICARUS.
Thrillers4u
Deon Meyer is not just South Africa's greatest crime writer, he's up there with the best in the world.
The Times, Saturday Review
South African author Deon Meyer's Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, ICARUS, is his best yet ... expertly engineered.
Laura Wilson
Guardian
ICARUS places [Deon] firmly in the top international league. It's the fifth, and best, of the Benny Griessel series.
The Times
Meyer heightens the suspense . . . The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals.
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Deon Meyer's South Africa is laid bare in ICARUS . . . it is as glittering and hard as the diamonds his country is famous for . . . Meyer utilises the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country
Barry Forshaw
Independent
Sharp and full of energy, his evocation of place and character second to none. The pace of the novel is breathless, yet Meyer never sacrifices authenticity or the quality of his writing. Crime, wine and a thrilling finale: a rare and unexpected treat.
Simon Lelic, author of Rupture Show Less