Benny Griessel Mysteries — Series by Timothy Zahn — LitShelf
Series · 9 books
Benny Griessel Mysteries
by Timothy Zahn
Bennie Griessel may be losing his battle with alcohol but he still knows enough to head up the police team tracking 'Artemis', a vigilante killer who targets child murderers. The killer is in fact Thobela Mpayipheli, a former freedom fighter robbed of everything by the murder of his son. And when Griessel's daughter is kidnapped, his world and Thobela's converge towards a devastating climax. A brilliantly suspenseful novel, and a searing portrait of modern South Africa, in which sometimes only hope and humanity can fight the cruellest crimes.
Bennie Griessel may be losing his battle with alcohol but he still knows enough to head up the police team tracking 'Artemis', a vigilante killer who targets child murderers. The killer is in fact Thobela Mpayipheli, a former freedom fighter robbed of everything by the murder of his son. And when Griessel's daughter is kidnapped, his world and Thobela's converge towards a devastating climax. A brilliantly suspenseful novel, and a searing portrait of modern South Africa, in which sometimes only hope and humanity can fight the cruellest crimes.
Detective Benny Griessel is a legend and a drunk. He has trodden on too many toes to reach the top of the promotion ladder. But when an American backpacker disappears in Capetown, Benny has just thirteen hours to save the girl, save his career and crack down on a conspiracy which threatens the whole country.
A police officer is shot dead. The next day, one of his colleagues is as well. Then the South African police receive an email threatening an additional cop killed each day until a cold case is solved.
After 602 days dry, Captain Benny Griessel of the South African police services can't take any more tragedy. So when Benny 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 startup, 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?
"When a cold case dossier lands on Captain Benny Griessel's desk, he and his partner Vaughn Cupido, fellow member of the Hawks elite police unit in South Africa, reluctantly set to work reviewing the evidence of the disappearance -- and possible murder -- of ex-cop Johnson Johnson on the world's most luxurious train line. Two fellow travelers might have the answers Griessel and Cupido need-but they too seem to have disappeared into thin air, and the few clues that exist suggest a cover-up. Meanwhile, Daniel Darret has settled into a new, quiet life in Bordeaux, France, far from his native South Africa and his revolutionary past. But when a man from that past reappears to commission his unique skills one more time, Daniel is forced to decide whether to remain anonymous or to strike a forceful blow against a corrupt government. Benny and Vaughn's investigation and Daniel's decision eventually collide in an ending as dramatic as it is unexpected, leaving Griessel and Cupido uncertain of their own future. With its rapid-fire plotting and beloved characters, The Last Hunt shows one of today's great crime writers operating at the peak of his powers and makes a brave and powerful statement about the pervasive corruption that has stolen so much from Meyer's native country"--
