Let the Dead Lie

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, 1953 Forced to resign from his position of Detective Sergeant and re-classified as "mixed race" after an incident involving a young black woman, Emmanuel Cooper winds up powerless and alone in the tough coastal city of Durban mixing labouring with surveillance work for his old boss, Major van Niekerk. Patrolling the freight yards one night, he stumbles upon the body of a young white boy and the detective in him cannot, or will not, walk away. When two more bodies - this time an older English woman and her maid - are discovered at his boarding house, he unwittingly becomes the prime suspect in a triple murder case.At Major van Niekerk's behest, Cooper is given 48 hours to clear his name and - unofficially - solve the three murders. And so, temporarily back to being a European Detective Sergeant, he descends into Durban's seedy underworld, a viper's nest of prostitution, drugs and violence run by Indian gangsters. To solve the crimes and save his own skin, he must place his trust in a mysterious figure who drives a white DeSoto convertible, a Zion Gospel preacher, and the exquisite yet streetwise Lana, who also happens to be Major van Niekerk's mistress...Suspenseful, compelling and rich with the complexities of life in Apartheid-era South Africa, Let The Dead Lie cements Malla Nunn's place as one of Australia's most engaging crime writers.