The Song Dog - James McClure

"A unique mystery series that focuses not only on fascinating crimes,
but also on the evils of apartheid in South Africa. When Lieutenant Tromp Kramer joins forces with brilliant Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi to investigate an accidental murder, they are confronted by the mysterious and legendary Song Dog."

I actually enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. As a South African myself, this story was a little close to home at times. The story is set in the early 60's in Apartheid era South Africa, yet written in the 90's, and the language used by the white people and their attitudes towards the coloured people in the story made me wince. In the guise of a crime story it lays bare the horrifying way that Apartheid worked to enslave, discount and dehumanise the black population of the country at that time.

The story is full of hysterical, colourful characters and enough twists and turns to keep me reading right to the end. It may sound odd given the plot and the time and place in which it is set, but it is also very funny in places. Kramer's lassie-faire attitude, one of the Sergeants constantly wears ruby socks even with is Police Uniform and the witty one liners. I laughed out loud at some points. Some section truly reminded me of home. The growing respect between the black and white detectives working together is paced well and the story creates a wonderful sense of time and place. I thought Zondi was also an amazingly interesting character. His is fight to except his tribal root yet also his own casual racism towards other black people due to being raised in a white missionary school certainly reflected the internal hatred that Apartheid created. 

Of course while certainly ahead of its time in the 90's, the book is by no means perfect in it's race portrayal. The discounting/laughing at tribal ways, the agreement of the general stupidity of black people, the absence of any female characters, the lack of black character's other then Zondi all showed how far we have come and still need to go.

The crime itself isn't knock out but still kept me engaged and I definitely didn't guess who the perp was. What this book really excels at is creating an understanding of the situation without getting didactic. 

Age Rating 17+. Sex, heavily racist language, violence.