by Malla Nunn
First published 2010
Emmanuel Cooper works the docks of Durban when he discovers the body of an eleven-year-old white boy. Someone has brutally slit the child's throat. No witnesses step forward. No one claims to know the victim. The year is 1953, and South Africa suffers under the National Party's harsh racial laws while poverty spreads across the land. The police immediately suspect Cooper of the killing. They also accuse him of two similar unsolved murders. Cooper finds himself behind bars, facing charges that could destroy his life. An old friend helps secure his release, but freedom comes with a deadly condition. Cooper has just forty-eight hours to prove his innocence and identify the real killer. Time runs short as he navigates a society torn apart by racial division and economic hardship. The former detective must use every skill he possesses to clear his name and find justice for the murdered boy.
Genres: historical-fiction, african-literature, mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, race-against-time, wrongly-accused
Setting: Durban, South Africa
Period: 1953
363 pages · Paperback · Cargo
Content warnings: racism, violence