The first rule of survival - Paul Mendelson

Seven years ago in Cape Town, three young South African schoolboys were abducted in broad daylight on consecutive days. They were never seen again. Now, a new case for the unorthodox Colonel Vaughn de Vries casts a light on the original enquiry, which he is convinced was a personal failure on his part; the abductions have haunted him for those seven years, costing him his marriage and peace of mind. Struggling in a mire of departmental and racial rivalry, de Vries seeks the whole truth and unravels a complex history of abuse, deception and murder - and in the process discovers he is no longer sure who his friends and enemies are...