One place where love of books and love of anthropology come together is in international mysteries. This particular sub-genre of mysteries is one of my favorites and I plan to write about international mysteries that I have read and enjoyed.
Bloody Harvests takes place in South Africa and features two detectives, Jacob Tshabalala, and Harry Mason. Tshabalala is a Christian who is from a family of tribal priests and healers and Harry Mason his partner was born in England and came to South Africa as a youngster. Both have secrets from each other and those secrets influence their behavior through this case.
Kunzmann shows us a South Africa in which history and old wounds piercethe present. The characters are credible and they fight a criminal who is mythic and uses his knowledge of tribal religion and healing and his own unusual appearance to construct a persona that frightens and controls the local population.
Kunzmann has a new book, Salamander Cotton, coming out which features Harry Mason again. It is being published in the U in mid-November.
Another South African author to explore is Deon Meyer who has had 3 books translated into English and published in the US. They include: Heart of the Hunter, Dead before Dying and Dead at Daybreak. Heart of the Hunter is particularly interesting because it touchesthe history of South Africa in the Cold War. Tiny, the lead character, the nickname for Thobela Mpayipheli, is a former anti-apartheid operative trained by the KGB. He races across the country to honor a promise he had made to an old friend. He is a wonderful character, a now-peaceful man who has to reach back into his old life and old skills to survive to fulfill his promise.
Both of these authors are worth reading--they have much to author as thriller writers but also as guides to an unfamiliar place and history.
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