Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Back to South Africa in James McClure's shorts

Detectives Beyond Borders has long been a fan of James McClure's Kramer and Zondi novels, which pair a white Afrikaner police lieutenant and his Zulu assistant in apartheid-era South Africa, and do not spare the reader the harsh words that swirl around, about, and between the two. (Read all Detectives Beyond Borders' McClure posts; click the link, then scroll down.)

So I was especially excited to hear from the good folks at Crime Beat (South Africa), about God It Was Fun, a collection of McClure's short stories and scripts. These include the screenplay for a film adaptation of his novel The Steam Pig, a production "halted in circumstances that remain a mystery to this day," according to a short, informative biographical introduction by McClure's children.

It has been a while since I've read South African crime fiction, a body of work I've called second only to Ireland's in international crime writing, and it's good to be back.
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Want to join me in exploring South African crime fiction? Here's a Crime Beat list of twenty top South African crime novels. I might have chosen different books by Mike Nicol and Roger Smith, but it's an exciting list, including a few authors new to me, one of whose novels I have just bought.

© Peter Rozovsky 2014

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8 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I'm glad you mentioned The Steam Pig, a book that has been on my TBR list for years, and I needed the reminder.

May 21, 2014  
Blogger Mack said...

Thanks for the heads-up, I'm a great fan of McClure as well. God It Was Fun is available on Kindle and I just downloaded a copy.

I am please to note that I've read 7 of the top 10 and 5 of the next 10 and obviously need to fill in the rest immediately.

May 21, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

R.T., it's worth reading. So is The Song Dog.

May 21, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Mack, you've probably read more than I have, so I have incentive to catch up.

Have you resumed your blog? If so, let me know, and I'll link to it again.

May 21, 2014  
Blogger Mack said...

Peter, I've been mostly reading and mostly reading South African fiction. I was feeling the need to re-start my blog and I think your post might just have done that. :)

May 21, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Well, now, that is good news. Keep me posted.

I bought the McClure collection and Counting the Coffins, and I am looking forward to reading both.

May 22, 2014  
Blogger Kelly Robinson said...

I read THE STEAM PIG because it's on the Haycraft-Queen list, though it was so long ago that I only have the vaguest recollection of it. The short stuff might be fun to track down as a re-introduction.

May 24, 2014  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

My favorite McClure novel is The Gooseberry Fool. Then there is the last of the eight Kramer and Zondi novels, published in 1881 and set in 1962, which included one character's dismissive reference to some young lawyer named Nelson Mandela.

McClure was one of the best, and he deserves reading.

May 24, 2014  

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