ICARUS, the number one bestseller by Deon Meyer, is out now in paperback in the USA from Grove Atlantic. Translated into English by K.L. Seegers, ICARUS shot to the number one position in the South African charts after its release in Afrikaans, and was shortlisted for the Nielsen Booksellers’ Choice Award. The fifth (and what The Times describes as the best) of Meyer’s Benny Griessel series, ICARUS is a breathlessly-paced crime novel rich in in character and its setting against the backdrop of the South African wine industry.
ICARUS is published in the US with Grove Atlantic, and has also been sold in South Africa, the UK, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Norway, Spain and Sweden, with Deon’s books sold in more than 27 countries overall.
After 602 days dry, Captain Benny Griessel of the South African police services can't take any more tragedy. So when he is called in to investigate a multiple homicide, it pushes him close to breaking point – a former friend and detective colleague has shot his wife and two daughters, then killed himself. Benny wants out – out of his job, his home and his relationship with his singer girlfriend, Alexa. He moves into a hotel and starts drinking. Again.
But Benny's unique talent is urgently required to help investigate another crime – the high profile murder of Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech start-up, Alibi, whose body is discovered buried in the sand dunes north of Cape Town. Alibi is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners. It has made Richter one of the most notorious people in South Africa. Can Benny pull together the strands of his life in time to catch the killer?
Deon Meyer’s thrilling standalone novel FEVER was recently published in South Africa in Afrikaans (titled KOORS) by Tafelberg. A gripping, epic narrative of survival in a world struck by ‘The Fever’, with the mystery of a murder as well, it also raced to Number One in Afrikaans where it topped the lists for 6 weeks, and has remained in the Top Ten for more than ten weeks. See more on Deon Meyer’s site here.
FEVER will be published in May 2017 in the Netherlands and June 2017 in the UK and Deon Meyer will also be writing the gift book for the 2017 Crime & Thriller book weeks in the Netherlands. Previous authors selected include Stephen King, Dick Francis and Ian Rankin.
Praise for ICARUS
‘Deon Meyer is one of the best crime writers on the planet.’ – Mail on Sunday
‘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... expertly engineered.’ – Laura Wilson, The Guardian
‘Don’t be surprised if you start to see gaggles of foreigners on the city’s streets clutching well-thumbed paperbacks and talking darkly of murder and mayhem. Such is the growing popularity overseas of Deon Meyer... the tight structure of the novels, which weave simultaneous narrative strands in punchy gobbets of action and suspense are also very filmic.’ – Tim Butcher, Cape Argus
‘A master on vintage form… He is a defining novelist of modern South Africa.’ – Barry Forshaw, The Independent
About Deon Meyer
Deon Meyer lives in Cape Town. His books are published in 27 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. His novel THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune's '10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004'. Most recently, the spectacular COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger.
Visit Deon’s website, or read more on the Blake Friedmann website.
Follow Deon on Twitter @MeyerDeon.