Memo from Turner

Willocks (Green River Rising) holds nothing back in this impressive crime novel featuring a relentless and incorruptible black South African police officer. Cape Town Warrant Officer Radebe Turner comes across the corpse of an unidentified teenage black girl in Nyanga township, “a competitor for the title of highest crime neighborhood on the continent.” The girl was the victim of a hit-and-run, and Turner is determined to bring those responsible to justice, a task made easier by a smartphone left behind at the scene. He soon identifies the white men involved in the crime, who include Jason Britz, the nephew of a police sergeant, and Dirk Le Roux, the son of millionaire Margo Le Roux, a powerful woman credited with creating hundreds of jobs and a supporter of the African National Congress. Despite his superior’s resistance to the inquiry, and the lack of cooperation from the authorities in Le Roux’s hometown, Turner persists, refusing to be bought or frightened off the case. Fans of the gritty and gory work of James Ellroy and Paul Cleave will appreciate Willocks. Agent: Albert Zuckerman, Writers House. (Mar.)