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Devil's Peak
AuthorDeon Meyer
Original titleInfanta
TranslatorMadeleine van Biljon
LanguageAfrikaans
GenreCrime/Thriller fiction
Set inSouth Africa
PublisherHodder & Stoughton
Publication date
2005 (2007 in English)
Publication placeSouth Africa
Pages???
ISBN978-0-340-82265-4
Followed byThirteen Hours 

Devil's Peak[1] is a crime novel written by South African thriller novelist, Deon Meyer. Its Afrikaans title is Infanta, and it has been translated into English by ??? Madeleine van Biljon. This novel inaugurates a series of several detective novels whose hero is Inspector Benny Griessel.

In this bestselling thriller,[2] the author brings together history, that of the apartheid system,[3] and politics, that of South Africa in Angola.

This book won a coveted international prize, the France’s Prix Mystère de la critique.[4] It has also been the basis of Orion, a series for television.[5]

New ref [6]

Référence en FR : [7]


Plot summary[edit]

Thobela Mpayipheli is a former Stasi agent who hangs up to take care of his adopted son Pakamile. When he is killed, Thobela has only one idea in mind: to do justice and to hunt down all the torturers of children across the country. Inspector Griessel, a notorious alcoholic, takes care of the investigation, but he also has to deal with his family problems and with Christine, a newly met prostitute who fears for her child.

The plot alternates between the chapters written in the third person and describing the step-by-step investigations, and those written in the first person and detailing the history of the personal life of Zet van Heerden. This character is like a vindicator showing us that no one holds a single truth, and that coexistence with former enemies is difficult.[8]

In parallel, the reader discovers the life of Thobela Mpayipheli, a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe — the armed wing of African National Congress — sent to the former Soviet Union and East Germany to be trained as an assassin.[9]

Quotation[edit]

In a dialogue with Hope (Beneke), a sentence summarizes how between Zet (van Heerden), the main character, oscillates between positive and negative feelings.

'My mother is an artist. That's her work.' He pointed to the wall. 'She creates beautiful paintings. She looks at the world and she makes it more beautiful on canvas. I think it's her way of distancing herself from the evil that is in all of us.' (Day 4 — Sunday, 9 July).[10]

Reference list[edit]

  1. ^ Meyer, Deon (2005). Devil's Peak. London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-73943-3.
  2. ^ "Deon Meyer: 'Do I have a next book in me?'". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
  3. ^ Reyes Torres, Agustín (2011). "Investigating the New South Africa: An Interview with Deon Meyer on Dead Before Dying" (PDF). Anglistica, An Interdisciplinary Journal. 15.1: 79–89.
  4. ^ De Waal, Mandy (2 March 2012). "Murder she wrote: Margie Orford, SA's crime fiction queen". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  5. ^ "The Wait is Over for Deon Meyer's "Best Book Yet": Cobra". Sunday Times Books Live. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  6. ^ Naidu, Sam; van der Wielen, Karlien (2017-02-15). "8. Poison and antidote. Evil and the Hero-Villain Binary in Deon Meyer's Post-Apartheid Crime Thriller, Devil's Peak". In Effron, Malcah; Johnson, Brian (eds.). The Function of Evil across Disciplinary Contexts. Lexington Books. pp. 117–129. ISBN 978-1-4985-3342-3.
  7. ^ Berger, Martine (2014-07-08). "Le Cap en noir ? La Mother City dans les romans policiers de Deon Meyer". EchoGéo (in French) (28). doi:10.4000/echogeo.13863. ISSN 1963-1197.
  8. ^ Jean, Sevry (2007-05-01). Littératures d'Afrique du Sud (in French). Karthala Editions. ISBN 978-2-8111-4136-3.
  9. ^ Phillips, Bill (2014-03-26). "South african crime fiction: an illuminating window on the rainbow nation". In Mendes, Ana Cristina; Baptista, Cristina (eds.). Reviewing Imperial Conflicts. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 60–70. ISBN 978-1-4438-5879-3.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Meyer2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

External links[edit]