I read Seven Days in
K.L. Seegers’s translation of the Afrikaans original 7 Dae, written by Deon Meyer.
Seven Days is part
of a series featuring detective captain Benny Griessel but Seven Days reads just fine on its own; I haven’t read the precursors.
Meyers mixes episodes from Griessel’s personal life—counting
his days of sobriety and showing his struggle to start a relationship with a lovely
singer—with his investigation of the murder of an ambitious and artificially shapely
female attorney.
The case is urgent because a sniper is shooting at
policemen, promising to shoot one a day until the attorney’s killer is found.
The novel is well-structured and nicely paced, and I thought
Meyer did particularly well populating Seven
Days with a varied bunch of investigators and the tensions between them.
Bonus for me: I couldn’t help but enjoy the small Russian subplot!
Disclaimer: I
received a copy of Seven Days at the
Grove/Atlantic booth at BookExpo America, thank you! -- I always enjoy discussing
literature in translation with Grove/Atlantic.
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