The Woman in the Blue Cloak
by Deon Meyer
The Woman in the Blue Cloak is a brilliant novella which will thrill and entertain fans of Deon Meyer's much-loved detective Benny Griessel.
Benny Griessel is a cop on a mission: he plans to ask Alexa Bernard to marry him. That means he needs to buy an engagement ring - and that means he needs a loan.
So Benny has a lot on his mind when he is called to a top-priority murder case. A woman's body is discovered, naked and washed in bleach, draped on a wall beside a picturesque road above Cape Town. The identity of the victim is a mystery, as is the reason for her killing.
Gradually, Benny and his colleague Vaughn Cupido begin to work out the roots of the story, which reach as far away as England and Holland... and as far back as the seventeenth century.
**Review
Praise for The Woman in the Blue Cloak:
“Anything Deon Meyer writes is welcome, especially if it features his fantastic South African detective Benny Griessel . . . [The Woman in the Blue Cloak] leaves us wanting more. Anyone who has yet to discover Meyer―who writes in Afrikaans―or his wonderfully rounded and very human hero is in for a treat . . . Meyer is one of the best crime writers on the planet.”―*Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine*
Praise for the Benny Griessel Series:
“Mr. Meyer, the leading thriller writer in his native country, traffics in crime-novel situations familiar the world over: drunken cops, charming robbers, dangerous murderers, sudden violence―and sometimes, issues of race. Mr. Meyer’s South Africa, however, is unique. His books, translated from Afrikaans, are usually set in the Cape Town region, where mountains spectacularly meet the sea on the Horn of Africa. Amid these vistas his detective confronts his own―and his country’s―tortured past and the legacy of Apartheid.”―Wall Street Journal, on Cobra
“Meyer . . . vividly depicts the story of South Africa in his novels, from the hope and turmoil of the fall of apartheid to the corrupt and desperate aspects of present-day Cape Town . . . Meyer’s novels have an insistent forward motion, and the ones featuring Captain Griessel in particular have a pleasing relentlessness.”―Los Angeles Review of Books, on *Cobra*
“A serious writer who richly deserves the international reputation he has built.”―Washington Post, on *Cobra*
“Deon Meyer’s name on the cover is a guarantee of crime writing at its best.”―Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Playing with Fire, on *Icarus*
“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 utilizes the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country.”―Independent, on *Icarus*
“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 . . . [An] expertly engineered tale of sex, lies, and fraud.”―Guardian (Best Recent Crime Fiction Novels), on *Icarus*
“Deon Meyer continues his string of superb, tightly constructed timeline thrillers. Coming on the heels of the breath-holding Thirteen Hours, Seven Days takes us into the heart of a major police hunt for a killer targeting policemen as he demands the investigation of a seemingly unsolvable cold case.”―Globe & Mail, on *Seven Days*
“Thirteen Hours has breathtaking suspense, psychological understanding, and one of the most inspiring detectives ever. Deon Meyer deserves his international reputation.”―Thomas Perry, author of The Burglar, on *Thirteen Hours*
“Unputdownably brilliant.”―Mail & Guardian (South Africa), on *Thirteen Hours*
“A smashing story. Imposing a strict time limit and a tight location on his plot, [Meyer] ramps up the suspense to an unbearable degree. Best of all, his sharply drawn characters really feel part of the new South Africa, where loyalties and beliefs must always be questioned.”―Financial Times, on *Thirteen Hours*
About the Author
Deon Meyer is the internationally acclaimed, prizewinning author of eleven thrillers, including Fever, Icarus, Cobra, Seven Days, and the Barry Award-winning Thirteen Hours. His books have been published in twenty-seven languages. He lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Benny Griessel is a cop on a mission: he plans to ask Alexa Bernard to marry him. That means he needs to buy an engagement ring - and that means he needs a loan.
So Benny has a lot on his mind when he is called to a top-priority murder case. A woman's body is discovered, naked and washed in bleach, draped on a wall beside a picturesque road above Cape Town. The identity of the victim is a mystery, as is the reason for her killing.
Gradually, Benny and his colleague Vaughn Cupido begin to work out the roots of the story, which reach as far away as England and Holland... and as far back as the seventeenth century.
**Review
Praise for The Woman in the Blue Cloak:
“Anything Deon Meyer writes is welcome, especially if it features his fantastic South African detective Benny Griessel . . . [The Woman in the Blue Cloak] leaves us wanting more. Anyone who has yet to discover Meyer―who writes in Afrikaans―or his wonderfully rounded and very human hero is in for a treat . . . Meyer is one of the best crime writers on the planet.”―*Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine*
Praise for the Benny Griessel Series:
“Mr. Meyer, the leading thriller writer in his native country, traffics in crime-novel situations familiar the world over: drunken cops, charming robbers, dangerous murderers, sudden violence―and sometimes, issues of race. Mr. Meyer’s South Africa, however, is unique. His books, translated from Afrikaans, are usually set in the Cape Town region, where mountains spectacularly meet the sea on the Horn of Africa. Amid these vistas his detective confronts his own―and his country’s―tortured past and the legacy of Apartheid.”―Wall Street Journal, on Cobra
“Meyer . . . vividly depicts the story of South Africa in his novels, from the hope and turmoil of the fall of apartheid to the corrupt and desperate aspects of present-day Cape Town . . . Meyer’s novels have an insistent forward motion, and the ones featuring Captain Griessel in particular have a pleasing relentlessness.”―Los Angeles Review of Books, on *Cobra*
“A serious writer who richly deserves the international reputation he has built.”―Washington Post, on *Cobra*
“Deon Meyer’s name on the cover is a guarantee of crime writing at its best.”―Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Playing with Fire, on *Icarus*
“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 utilizes the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country.”―Independent, on *Icarus*
“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 . . . [An] expertly engineered tale of sex, lies, and fraud.”―Guardian (Best Recent Crime Fiction Novels), on *Icarus*
“Deon Meyer continues his string of superb, tightly constructed timeline thrillers. Coming on the heels of the breath-holding Thirteen Hours, Seven Days takes us into the heart of a major police hunt for a killer targeting policemen as he demands the investigation of a seemingly unsolvable cold case.”―Globe & Mail, on *Seven Days*
“Thirteen Hours has breathtaking suspense, psychological understanding, and one of the most inspiring detectives ever. Deon Meyer deserves his international reputation.”―Thomas Perry, author of The Burglar, on *Thirteen Hours*
“Unputdownably brilliant.”―Mail & Guardian (South Africa), on *Thirteen Hours*
“A smashing story. Imposing a strict time limit and a tight location on his plot, [Meyer] ramps up the suspense to an unbearable degree. Best of all, his sharply drawn characters really feel part of the new South Africa, where loyalties and beliefs must always be questioned.”―Financial Times, on *Thirteen Hours*
About the Author
Deon Meyer is the internationally acclaimed, prizewinning author of eleven thrillers, including Fever, Icarus, Cobra, Seven Days, and the Barry Award-winning Thirteen Hours. His books have been published in twenty-seven languages. He lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa.