Dead Man’s Land: A Bernie Bernard Crime Novel. No 1 of the Bathurst Chronicles by Monty J Roodt (Autographed)

Description

When Richard Steele, a wealthy farmer and businessman, is murdered on his farm, Bernie Bernard, an academic who lives in the small village of Bathurst in South Africa, and his lover Hannah Nichols, become embroiled in the aftermath. Bernard’s sociological imagination is ignited as he seeks to unravel the mystery of Steele’s murder, a mystery that brings him into conflict with Detective Inspector Constantine Rush, an ex-drug squad and security policeman that Bernard has had many conflicts with during the apartheid years.

Steele, with his cronies in the provincial government, plan to turn the commonage in Bathurst into a game reserve for wealthy tourists. The businessman, the main driver of the scheme, has made enemies in the past, and this project, is about to make him more.

An anomaly emerges at the centre of the murder. While the mysterious “man” plots to assassinate Steele from a long range with a rifle, and goes as far as lining him up in his telescopic sites, ballistic tests show that Steele has been shot at close range with a small calibre handgun. Bernie, with the help of Hannah, slowly manages to eliminate the many people who have a motive for killing Steele, uncovering a dark web of power, exploitation and vengeance, leading them to the identity of the killer.