The Caterpillar Cop

When a twelve-year-old boy is found strangled to death with multiple stab wounds, his killer is assumed to be a pedophile. Lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his sidekick, Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi begin to investigate and soon learn that the boy had been involved in a detective club that encouraged children to spy and snitch on people, and no one likes a snitch. Whom was Boetie spying on? As the two men look into possible leads on the case, they must also navigate increasing tensions surrounding racism in the ’70s in South Africa, and Kramer finds himself on the receiving end of much of the hatred himself.

The author of The Steam Pig delivers a “powerful picture of South African society . . . The pace is fast, the solution ingenious” (The New York Times Book Review). When a twelve-year-old boy named Boetie is found strangled to death with multiple stab wounds, his killer is assumed to be a pedophile. Lt. Tromp Kramer and his sidekick, Bantu Det. Sergeant Mickey Zondi, begin to investigate and soon learn that the boy had been involved in a detective club that encouraged children to spy and snitch on people—and no one likes a snitch. Whom was Boetie spying on? As the two men look into possible leads on the case, they must also navigate increasing tensions surrounding racism in the seventies in South Africa, and Kramer finds himself on the receiving end of much of the hatred himself. “McClure’s first novel, The Steam Pig, was one of the most memorable books in the genre last year . . . The Caterpillar Cop may prove to be even better.” —Newsday “The Caterpillar Cop . . . unusually enough—is just as good, if not better, than its predecessor.” —St. Louis Post Dispatch “The integrated South African police team of Lt. Tromp Kramer and Sgt. Zondi did a good job in McClure’s The Steam Pig. They’re even better this time . . . The gathering of clues is described with McClure’s special blend of humor, cheerfully sexy scenes and startling realism. Good to see a second novel come out so well.” —San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

In the late 1940s and early 1950s a new kind of detective story appeared on the scene. This was a story in which the mystery is solved by regular police detectives, usually working in teams and using ordinary police routines. This kind of narrative is customarily called the "police procedural" story. And it is the subject of this book. Though there has been numberless writers of these stories, there has never been a book of criticism before.

Lieutenant Kramer and Sergeant Zondi have their hands full. On the same day that an adult entertainer known as Eve is found accidentally strangled to death in her dressing room, her pet python wrapped dead around her neck, a beloved candy shop owner named "Lucky" Siyayo is shot to death at his counter in a botched robbery. The detective duo quickly realize neither death is as simple as it looks on the surface: Lucky Siyayo's cash register was all but empty the day he was murdered, which suddenly throws a whole rash of fatal neighborhood robberies into perspective—were none of them robberies at all? It becomes clear a killer is on the loose, but Zondi and Kramer must figure out what the killer is after. Meanwhile, postmortem analysis reveals that Eve didn't die at the time her ex-boss had stated he'd discovered her body; the more Kramer picks the circumstances apart, the less they make sense. With two very different sets of crimes to solve, Kramer and Zondi set off on treks that take them all over town, from the poorer villages to the sleazy dressing rooms of con artists and pimps to gorgeous steop of the South African countryside in another surefire investigation full of both stirring observations of Apartheid and plenty of mischief. Only one thing is for sure—no one is getting to take his day off this week!

In the debut mystery featuring Lieutenant Kramer and Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi set in South Africa, a beautiful blonde has been killed by a bicycle spoke to the heart, Bantu gangster style. Why?

The enormous explosion of crime fiction over the last decade means that more people are looking for a good mystery than ever before. This dictionary of fictional detectives helps readers learn about the series in which their favorite detectives are featured. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on roughly 150 fictional detectives, which provide information about the works in which the detective appears, the locales in which the detective operates, the detective's investigative methods, and other important information. Helpful bibliographical citations direct the reader to other interesting works. The volume closes with a selected, general bibliography; various appendices; and an extensive index. The enormous explosion of crime fiction over the last decade means that more people are looking for a good mystery than ever before. Many of the most popular mystery books appear in series, and these series feature carefully developed detectives.

Northern Italy, 1982: Inspector Piero Trotti is enjoying his breakfast at a café when gunmen drive up and shoot the man sitting at the next table. Was Trotti their intended target? He isn’t sure. The case falls under the jurisdiction of the local Carabinieri, but Trotti decides to make his own inquiries. The Puppeteer is the follow-up to CWA award-winner Timothy Williams’s dazzling crime fiction debut, Converging Parallels. This tautly written novel brings us to the depths of a corrupt, scheming Italian society in which bank officials, clergymen, masons, lawyers, and, of course, politicians are all suspect of resorting to criminal activity for personal gain. Only the police are presumed trustworthy, and even they are sorely divided by departmental rivalries and jealousies.