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Devil's Peak: A Novel

Deon Meyer
Little, Brown and Company (2008)
ISBN 9780316017855
Reviewed by Audrey Larson for RebeccasReads (2/08)

Devil's Peak is a murder mystery/thriller set in South Africa.  It is essentially three stories about three separate people whose lives converge along the way.  The author jumps back and forth between the separate stories, sometimes in separate paragraphs on the same page.  It can be quite startling and frustrating, having to stop and wonder for a moment just who he is writing about now.  Further editing could make the reading less choppy.

The three main characters are an alcoholic detective, a man on a mission to track down and kill child molesters and killers (illegally), and a woman with a small child who works in the sex trade, hoping to get enough money to “retire” in a nice house with her child.

The book begins with the prostitute telling her story to a clergyman.  She has a child, and gives insights into how her life evolved the way it has and why she does it.  The author has actually interviewed prostitutes to get their stories, and it makes her story sound authentic, if unthinkable to us. 

The child “avenger” uses an old-fashioned assegai, a type of spear.  The press calls him “Artemis,” and people have mixed feelings about him murdering the child-killers.  Some people are glad that he is ridding society of them faster than the police can catch them.

The detective, Griessel, battles alcoholism that has caused his wife to put him out of their home.  As he stays sober, his mind becomes sharper, and he does an increasingly good job.  His two children support him, even though his wife does not.  Ultimately, his own daughter is kidnapped, and the chase becomes very personal for him.   

There is much suspense in the book, bloody murders, violence, profanity, revenge, tracking the killers, forgiveness, insights into South African police methods, and dynamics between whites and blacks in that country.  It is written (or translated) in English, and sometimes some of the words will be unfamiliar to Americans.  Sprinkled throughout are song lyrics and other words in a language foreign to us. 

With “Devil’s Peak,” Deon Meyer has written a good, suspenseful book that keeps you intrigued and reading right to the end.


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