When a rich white man is murdered in Cape Town, his coloured mistress is a witness. She and her children are murdered too, but husband Robert Dell survives and teams up with his hated father Bobby Goodbread, a far-right former CIA operative, and doer of bad deeds. He’s now dying of lung cancer. The murderer is also dying – of AIDS. He’s Inja Mazibuko, a Zulu warlord employed by a powerful and corrupt politician. Inja means dog in Zulu and it’s doubtful a more horrible villain has ever been written. He wipes out whole families, but Dell and Goodbread are hunting him down. Smith captures the extreme wealth, extreme poverty and extreme thinking of some South Africans mighty well and draws them together to drive a combustive storyline. It’s hard to put down as page after page you hope some good will come out of all the bloodshed. Read Dust Devils and see if it does.
