The October Killings-Wessel Ebersohn

The October Killings
Wessel Ebersohn
Minotaur, Jan 18 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312655952

Looking back, two decades, South Africa's justice department chief Justice Abigail Bukula knows she has come a long way. Back in 1985 in Lesotho, teenaged Bukula survived a raid on an African National Congress house due to the kindness of a white soldier, Leon Lourens, who was part of the assault.

In 2005, Lourens proves to Bukula that most of those who were with him on the attack have been murdered over the years on the anniversary of the raid. Bukola knows to end the serial killer’s murdering spree she will need expert help. She turns to brilliant former prison psychologist Dr. Yudel Gordon for help as he has access to the imprisoned commander of the assault Marinus van Jaarsveld. Although he lost his job when Apartheid ended, Dr. Gordon agrees to assist Bukula.

The whodunit is excellent and will please readers but is more a tool to enable the audience to observe the radical changes and problems to overcome in South Africa not long after the Apartheid wall came crumbling down. Profound, fans will relish this terrific timely thriller (recent movie Invictus) as the return of Gordon after a three decade hiatus will send new fans seeking his 1980 cases (see Closed Circle, A Lonely Place to Die and Divide the Night).

Harriet Klausner