Seven Days

Superior prose and characterization enable Meyer to make the most of a familiar plot device in his third crime thriller with self-loathing Cape Town homicide detective Benny Griessel (after 2010’s Barry Award–winning Thirteen Hours). Griessel, a recovering alcoholic assigned to the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigations, looks into an e-mail threat to shoot a policeman every day until the murderer of Hanneke Sloet is caught, starting that very day with the nonfatal shooting of a constable in the leg. The anonymous e-mailer, who insists the authorities know why Sloet, an attractive attorney, was stabbed to death, demands that the 40-day-old case be reopened immediately. Griessel takes up this political hot potato of a case as more e-mail communiqués add to the mystery of the sniper’s motives. Meyer balances the personal and professional adroitly, with a solution reminiscent of Peter Lovesey at his twistiest. Agent: Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann Literary. (Sept.)