Dust devils - Roger Smith

On the run after being framed for murdering his family, South African journalist Robert Dell's only ally is his oldest enemy: his father. Bobby Goodbread, an ex-CIA hitman just sprung from prison for atrocities he committed whilst in the employ of the apartheid regime, joins his son on a bloody cross-country road trip, bringing his killing skills and his hunger for redemption.From picture-postcard Cape Town to a Zulu tribal valley where AIDS, savage feuds and poverty have left the population as gutted as the parched red earth, father and son hunt down assassin Dog Mazibuko, uncovering a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the South African State. They cross paths with another man on a desperate mission: ex-investigator Disaster Zondi, returning to the place he fled as a youth to rescue a teenage girl - who may or may not be his daughter - sold into marriage to Mazibuko. These men are thrown together in a spiral of violence and retribution in a country where corruption and anarchy have replaced brutal tyranny and human life has never been cheaper.

Roger Smith was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and now lives in Cape Town. Before turning to a life of crime, he was a screenwriter, producer and director.

Top-notch... exposes the seamy side of Cape Town. Smith presents a flamboyant array of gangsters, conmen and petty criminals, loosely connected by one event
The Times

Thanks to his brilliant pared-down style, stunning ear for dialogue and penchant for pitch-black humour, it's a slick, compulsive page-turner
Cape Times, South Africa

An intricate Robert Altman-like narrative that, when the pieces finally connect, forms a terrifying portrait of the Cape Flats. [A] searing vision of characters trapped in a fetid purgatory
Kirkus reviews

From the terrific first sentence, the reader is firmly hooked in this dark South African thriller of murder, drugs, corruption, and revenge... with bizarre characters Elmore Leonard might appreciate and an intricate plot of tangled relation-ships across racial divides. Highly recommended for those wanting their noir as hard-boiled as it gets
Library Journal (starred review)

Smith delivers fast-paced, gut-wrenching, page-turning South African crime fiction that appeals to a world audience
Classic Feel South Africa

Racial tension, gang warfare, prison life, and witchcraft - with a nod to cannibalism - will make this thriller a prime destination for readers who like to detour from crime-fiction's beaten path
Booklist

Dust Devils is master storytelling, a crime ride that is wildly dark, riveting and original, a combination that has catapulted Smith to the highest ranks of the crime-writing game
Cape Times, South Africa

Roger Smith is a master storyteller and he has proved it with Dust Devils. It is a blockbuster that will grip you from Page 1. Beg, borrow or steal it, but don't miss it.
Southern Mail, South Africa