“An unnerving thrill ride that kept me on edge from beginning to end. The set-up is terrific and the bad guy is really bad—but so are the good guys.” —Phillip Margolin, New York Times-bestselling author
Reluctant bank robber Jack Burn is on the run after a heist in the United States that left $3 million missing and one cop dead. Hiding out in Cape Town, South Africa, he is desperate to build a new life for his pregnant wife and young son. But on a tranquil evening in their new suburban neighborhood they are the victims of a random gangland assault that changes everything.
Benny Mongrel, an ex-con night watchman guarding a building site next to Burn’s home, is another man desperate to escape his past. After years in the ghetto gangs of Cape Town he knows who went into Burn’s house. And what the American did to them. He also knows his only chance to save his own brown skin is to forget what he saw.
Burn’s actions on that night trap them both in a cat-and-mouse game with Rudi “Gatsby” Barnard—a corrupt Afrikaner cop who loves killing almost as much as he loves Jesus Christ—and Disaster Zondi, a fastidious Zulu detective who wishes to settle an old score. Once Gatsby smells those missing American millions, the four men are drawn into a web of murder and vengeance that builds to an unforgettable conclusion.
“With its shattering sense of place and satisfying plot twists, this book will grip you from page one.” —Chelsea Cain, New York Times-bestselling author
“Smith’s Cape Town is almost Dickensian in its presentation of thugs and murderers [and] an especially wonderful villain.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
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