The Last Hunt

In Meyer’s superb sixth novel featuring Capt. Benny Griessel (after 2015’s Icarus), Griessel and Capt. Vaughn Cupido, his police partner in South Africa’s elite Hawks investigative unit, are handed a “hot potato,” the possible murder of Johnson Johnson, a private security guard who was hired to protect a wealthy Dutch tourist on a luxury train from Cape Town to Pretoria. Johnson never made it to Pretoria. Nine days after he boarded the train, his body was found beside a railway line in the Northern Cape with a massive skull fracture. Griessel and Cupido’s attempts to learn the truth aren’t welcomed by everyone in the government. Meanwhile, Daniel Darret, a native South African who has settled in Bordeaux, France, rescues a female stranger from a gang of assailants with fighting skills that suggest he’s a trained killer. An old friend from South Africa soon has an important job for Darret. Meyer keeps the suspense high as the reader tries to figure out how the two plotlines connect. This may be the breakthrough book this author deserves. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Apr.)