This is Sharpe's first book. The story is certainly a riot, about South African police under apartheid dealing with an old English family who to put it mildly, are eccentric. It begins when the venerable and terrifying matriarch of the family calls the police station to report that she has murdered her Zulu cook--not a big deal in itself. However, she also reports that she has been having an affair with him and that puts a different complexion--no pun intended--on the matter. Soon an army of police is assaulting the family's mansion and being decimated by an elephant gun--the same one which despatched the cook. Events go out of control early and progress from one absurdity to another even greater. The incompetence and downright idiocy of the police, combined with the old guard philosophy of the English sahibs, make for infinite misunderstanding and disaster.
Unfortunately, the writing is no more than competent, lacking the subtlety which would bring this comic novel to the level of the S.A. novels of James McClure, master at this genre.
Unfortunately, the writing is no more than competent, lacking the subtlety which would bring this comic novel to the level of the S.A. novels of James McClure, master at this genre.
