A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Publisher's Synopsis

In 1950s South Africa, the colour of a killer's skin matters more than justice.

When Captain Willem Pretorius, an Afrikaner police officer, is brutally murdered in the tiny backwater of Jacob's Rest, Detective Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate.

The local Afrikaners and the dead man's prominent family view Cooper, an 'English' South African, with suspicion. Soon the powerful police Security Branch take over the investigation. But Cooper isn't interested in political expediency, or making friends in high places - he just wants the killer behind bars. As he pursues his own inquiry, he discovers the violence, secrets and desires behind the picture-perfect facade of Jacob's Rest.

The more he digs, the more dangerous the investigation becomes. Cooper has secrets of his own. If he can survive long enough to learn the truth about Captain Pretorius, it might just save his life.

My Review of A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

A particularly strong novel is A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn a murder mystery set in South Africa in the 1950s. The time and setting are significant because of the Racial Segregation laws that were in place at the time. This is an evocative and provocative story that studies an investigation that is complicated by the tumultuous environment in which it is set.

A Beautiful Place To Die introduces police detective Emmanuel Cooper who is called to a small town to investigate the murder of the town’s police captain.

Captain Willem Pretorius was a giant of a man who patrolled the town of Jacob’s Rest with the confidence of a man who knew his word was law. But now he lies dead face down in the river with a bullet in his head.

Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper has walked into the backwater town unaware that he is stepping into a tinderbox of emotions as the sons of the dead man deal with their rage and grief by looking for someone to blame. Their attention sits squarely on the black community and Cooper is forced to act as the voice of reason, unsure of the authority he might be able to exert in such a remote town.

Moving in to take over are the police Security Branch, the feared enforcers of the racial laws that rule the land. Their intention is to find the kind of suspect that suits their needs, which leaves it up to Cooper to work surreptitiously to find the true murderer, regardless of the colour of his skin.

Racial prejudice has never been more pronounced than the South Africa of the 1950s and the death of a white policeman accentuates the tensions and the vast difference in the treatment of blacks v whites.

The entire investigation is set on a precarious knife-edge thanks to the skewed priorities of the Security Branch and their political agenda. The tension is stoked by Cooper’s loss of authority, to the point where his life could very well be at risk for finding out the truth.

Cooper manages to find some allies within the town such as Constable Shabalala, an enigmatic black policeman and Mr Zweigman, a Jewish doctor from Germany who owned the town General Store. Together they would form an uneasy team required to go up against some ruthless opponents who are emboldened by the unreasonable laws they uphold. Not forgetting that They are also sharing the small town with a murderer.

Throughout, the plot unfolds steadily with Cooper finding that the town of Jacob’s Rest holds many secrets and Captain Willem Pretorius was responsible for a fair share of them.

Malla Nunn has a share of surprises in store for her readers and this is balanced nicely with the more volatile issue of racial segregation to create a potent mix.

I do have one observation that bothered me for a good proportion of the book. This is a story that is so completely focused on the interaction between its main characters that it wasn’t until I was halfway through it that I realised that not one single mention was made of the wildlife. Set in remote interior Africa against a landscape that is literally saturated with wildlife and the animals were completely missing. I found that very bemusing.

Apart from this single anomaly, A Beautiful Place To Die is a wonderfully crafted novel that marks Malla Nunn as an author of confidence and great ability. The prospect of more to come is a welcome one indeed.