Benny Griessel and his partner Vaughn Cupido have been demoted in rank and exiled from the Hawks police unit to the boondocks as punishment over an unauthorized investigation that exposed political corruption.

While awaiting transfer from Cape Town to duty in Stellenbosch, both officers receive anonymous letters with dire warnings of trouble within the ranks.

On duty in their new post and investigating the disappearance of a university student with a genius in computer skills, they come up against a series of dead ends. Then, a fellow officer is murdered, and this unveils a connection between the missing student, gun heists, and weapons missing from the police registry.

South African crime writer Deon Meyer often introduces parallel plots that ultimately converge. In The Dark Flood, they alternate between the search for the missing student and a subplot involving Sandra Steenburg, a real estate agent, who has been drawn into the web of playboy/swindler Jasper Boonstra, whose sudden disappearance draws the attention of Benny and Vaughn.

Meyer writes complex novels that are fast-moving, featuring intriguing characters and informing the reader about the turbulent political situation in his homeland. This is the seventh book in a series that keeps getting better. If you like police procedurals or thrillers, this is a series for you, combining nail-biting suspense, fully developed characters, a different setting, fluent prose, and surprising plot twists. Who knows, you might even learn a bit of Afrikaans.

[ visit Deon Meyer's website ]