The Satanic Mechanic: A Tannie Maria Mystery

In this thrilling and ultra charming mystery, Afrikaner food columnist Tannie Maria and her beau, Detective Lieutenant Henk Kannemeyer, attend a food festival celebrating a courtroom decision that forced corporations to return the Bushman tribe’s ancestral lands. When popular tribe leader Slimkat Kabbo is fatally poisoned, Henk, assigned to protect the man, vows to find the killer and Tannie Maria decides to assist him. She, meanwhile, is struggling with recurring nightmares triggered by her late husband’s violent death and their extremely abusive marriage. She turns to an informal PTSD therapy group led by the book’s charismatic title figure. His methods seem to be working—and then a group member is murdered, possibly by Slimkat’s assassin. Just as the novel’s authenticity depends on author Andrew’s firsthand knowledge of South Africa, its people, culture and food, the audio is enriched by the performance of Prinsloo, a South African actor best known for her role in the film The Gods Must Be Crazy. Her thespian experience allows her to do justice by the book’s characters, convincingly conveying Tannie Maria’s reaction to her painful memories and her infatuation with edibles. Her cadences, especially during Andrew’s loving descriptions of veldt flora, fauna and, yes, food, flow like music. An Ecco hardcover. (Mar.)