Dead Before Dying by Deon MeyerMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
This author came to our local literary festival and I was excited to pick up a detective novel set in South Africa. Who knows what I was expecting. I think I should learn not to expect anything. I finished this book last year but clean forgot to review it - probably wanted to block it from my mind.
This book is... not good. It's so typical of a male writer. A few points to illustrate why:
1. Dead wife
2. Dead wife who was a cop but made a mistake that no male character ever would, so she died
3. Male protagonist is not in the best of shape, mentally or physically
4. Nubile young thing is still obsessed with him
5. Did I mention the nubile young thing is also perfectly shaped? Or is that covered under nubile?
6. All the female characters (grand total of 3, I believe) want to get into the protagonist's pants
7. Rape is central to the story
Add to all this the book needed an eagle-eyed editor and proofreader as well - it has several annoying typos and mistakes which really shouldn't make it into a published book.
I want to say more but there's no point. This book is probably exactly what a detective novel is supposed to be - but it's the 21st century and all I want is for all art to move away from tropes. I don't want to read any more of Meyer's books - crime thrillers have a sexism problem, no need to read yet another series of books highlighting that point.
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