Category: reviews

Cape Town, in the 1960s.

 Love across the colour bar is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.

 John Terreblanche, a police reporter seeking redemption, tells the story of a Xhosa nurse, Promise Madiba, a Dutch doctor, Willem Jansen, and a Malay prostitute, Marja de Koning, who engage in a passionate love triangle in the shadow of the Sharpeville massacre, as South Africa lurches towards becoming a Republic.

 Violent yet tender, Immorality Act spans from Indonesia to Cape Town and is a moving account of the impact of apartheid, racism and colonialism on lives in the twentieth century, as well as a celebration of the ungovernability of the human spirit.

 Goodreads

Buy Links

Dr Berend Mets was born in Indonesia of Dutch parents, and amongst other countries grew up in apartheid South Africa where he became a doctor, anaesthetist and scientist. He came to fiction through an MFA degree after a career of medical, historical and scientific writing. Berend is a Professor of Anesthesiology at the Pennsylvania State University and divides his time between America, the Dutch Caribbean, and Cape Town, South Africa.

Instagram Facebook Twitter Website

My thoughts: inspired by his experiences and those of his father, Dr Berend Mets has crafted a fascinating and moving story of the second half of the twentieth century. From Indonesia under Japanese occupation and the horrors of WW2 to the Netherlands and then apartheid South Africa, the story of Willem, Marja and Promise is both terribly sad and full of joy.

Falling in love across the colour bar is illegal in 1961, but not something Willem and Promise do intentionally. Meeting in the hospital where they both work, the damaged doctor and the impassioned nurse fall in love and work secretly to end apartheid.

Marja is Willem’s childhood friend, his first love, long thought lost to him. Near death, he saves her life in the operating theatre. As she recovers in Promise’s home, the net is closing in on them. Promise’s political activities and the fact a white doctor has been spending so much time with her has brought scrutiny on them. The Immorality Act forbids sex between the races and it is this law that sees Willem and Marja in court, Promise having escaped.

The framing narrative of a book written by Afrikaans journalist John Terreblanche is interesting and allows for the inclusion of court documents and police reports but does at times feel intrusive  – as does his presence in their lives. He’s not part of their tangled relationship and doesn’t really belong. His guilt at his involvement in the case, only confessed later on, drives him to tell their story, but is it his to tell?

Powerful and moving, evocative and provoking, this is an interesting and intelligent book about a time when love was illegal and the government of South Africa felt it had the right to involve itself in people’s personal lives.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

Ash Carter returns to Israel on what should be a straightforward mission except for one small detail. Why did Alfred Duffy go AWOL from the British Army, go to Israel and then hand himself in at Acre Prison.

The mystery deepens when Carter finds that Duffy escaped just as he arrived.

The hunt begins but as the mystery unravels towards an exciting climax, it becomes unclear who is the hunter and who the hunted.

My thoughts: Ash Carter is dispatched to Israel, the newly formed country in former British Mandated Palestine, a country still riven with internal struggles.

He’s looking for a British soldier who’s gone AWOL, and been imprisoned in the old fortress prison in Acre, after handing himself in. But why did he go to Israel, only to hand himself in and where has he gone now? When Carter and Co turn up to take him into custody, he’s gone. And he’s escaped with another prisoner.

As Carter pursues him across the fledgling state, he uncovers a shocking and terrible series of deaths and an evil that goes right to the heart of the country, crossing all religious and ethnic lines.

I’m a big fan of Murray Bailey’s historical crime books, and of Ash Carter, so I was really excited to read this, and I wasn’t disappointed. Ash races back and forth across the desert, sometimes with others, often alone, despite having no real authority now the British have left, which brings him under suspicion at times. There’s a relentless pace as he’s up against it and the pressure of solving the case and finding Duffy is not exactly easy.

Ash of course wants to do the right thing, even if it means ignoring his orders, and luckily he’s the only one who knows exactly what’s happened. Which keeps the victims safe and Ash from getting locked up himself. Bring on his next high octane adventure!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own