A Beautiful Place to Die: An Emmanuel Cooper Mystery

The crime story is great, I'm really sorry that Malla Nunn stopped writing S A crimes.

This is one of the best detective novels I have read. Thrilling story, wonderful characters that are genuinely interesting. Captures the nuances , vitality, courage and pain of South Africa in the 1950s perfectly while never preaching. Interesting twists and turns and wonderful writing. Have now read the whole series as have all my friends. Hope a new one comes soon.

Wieder einmal schwimme ich gegen den Strom, ich konnte dem Buch nicht sehr viel abgewinnen. Klar, die Zeit, die Umstände, in denen es spielt, sind, v.a. auch für einen Europäer, sehr spannend, aber wirklich erklärt werden sie nicht. Ausserdem gab es so viele Lücken in der Geschichte, manche Übergänge waren nicht klar (ja, man kann sie sich schon selber überlegen, aber eine Ausführung wäre noch nett gewesen), viele Informationen kommen erst zum Schluss hervor, die Träume von Cooper sind verwirrlich und machen auch rückblickend nicht viel Sinn. Ich hätte gerne mehr über diese Zeit erfahren, aber mit diesem Buch scheint das nicht möglich gewesen zu sein. Die weiteren Bände werde ich mir wahrscheinlich schenken, denn ich bin mit keiner der Hauptfiguren richtig warm geworden.

A Beautiful Place to Die has all the ingredients of a good crime novel - social tension between individuals and groups, interesting historical context, excellent characterization, strong sense of place, good pacing and a well constructed plot. The novel is set not long after the National Party came to power in 1948 and started to push a strong apartheid agenda and Nunn uses this context to good effect, especially the simmering tensions between Dutch Afrikaners, English White, Blacks and Coloureds, and even Jewish refugees from Germany, and exploring the blurred lines between these groups. The characters are well penned and memorable, and the dialogue and scenes were well judged. The sense of place is particularly strong, capturing both the landscape of rural South Africa and the geography of apartheid in terms of how space was carved up and traversed. The plot builds nicely, with a number of blinds and twists, though ultimately in striving for increasing tension the end wobbles a little by stretching plausibility to the limit and becoming a little too over-melodramatic. This was a shame as the book really was excellent up until this point. Regardless, there is much to like about A Beautiful Place to Die, and Nunn has the foundation for an enjoyable series.

This is an immensely readable book. It has thoughtfully presented characters, and places them into the complex world of apartheid - lifting the vail that kept communities separate, while tackling a murder mystery. The book also questions how different races create myths about themselves. Well worth reading.

This is a wonderful book! The author has a beautiful style of writing. She conveys a delicate emotion about the country and the characters which comes through and touches you deeply. There is great insight into the situations and environments of the African people at that time. Read this. You'll want more. Another great tale that has an African setting is The Summoner by Layton Green. A superb page-turner that delves into the fascinating, unexplained mysteries that still live deep in Africa today, by an author who's been there.