I thought The Dark Flood was excellent. I have enjoyed all of the books I have read in this series but I think this is the best so far. This works as a stand-alone, but it would probably help to have read some previous ones – especially its immediate predecessor, The Last Hunt.
In the fallout from The Last Hunt, Benny and Vaughan are threatened with dismissal, but escape – just – with demotion and banishment from the Hawks to a provincial posting. There, they work on a puzzling Missing Person case; in the meantime disgraced millionaire Jasper Boonstra is involved in some shady property dealing and eventually the two become linked in a tangled web of deceit and corruption.
It’s brilliant. I was hooked from the start; the pacing and structure are excellent and there is a lot of genuine excitement (including a climax which is actually both plausible and thrilling). The background of South Africa in the last days of the Zuma presidency is excellently and subtly done in both the social set-up and the dreadful corruption of “state capture”. The relationship between Benny and Vaughan is realistic, touching at times and humorous at others, as is the progress of their personal lives.
I thought this was an exemplary police procedural. I was convinced by and completely engrossed in the story and I can recommend it very warmly.
(My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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