Ícaro / Icarus (Hardcover)

A freak flood reveals a body in the dunes of a Cape Coast suburb. The victim is Ernst Richter, a contentious businessman with a long list of enemies that had been missing for a month. From the get go, the case generates a media storm which, in turn, puts more pressure on the detectives to find the culprit. El capitán Benny Griessel, detective principal de la Unidad de Investigación de Delitos Prioritarios de Sudáfrica, se adentra en un caso de asesinato en las florecientes industrias tecnológicas y vitivinícolas del país.

A las puertas de la Navidad, una tormenta deja al descubierto un cuerpo enterrado en un suburbio de Ciudad del Cabo. Se trata de Ernst Richter, un controvertido hombre de negocios que se había granjeado numerosos enemigos y llevaba casi un mes desaparecido. Amigo de la polémica y de exhibir su fortuna, Richter era el fundador de Alibi.co.za, una empresa online dedicada a facilitar coartadas a personas adúlteras.

Desde el primer momento, el suceso provoca un formidable revuelo mediático: se filtran nombres de peces gordos que habrían contratado los servicios de Alibi y las altas esferas exigen a la policía resultados con rapidez.

Y todo esto ocurre en el peor momento posible para Griessel: ha vuelto a caer en la bebida, un colega se ha suicidado y su compañero, Vaughn Cupido, se ha enamorado de una de las sospechosas del crimen. Así pues, la lujuria, la ambición y la psicosis se entretejen en un caso mucho más turbio y complejo de lo que parecía en un principio.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Shortlisted for the 2016 CWA International Dagger Award
Shortlisted for the 2016 Nielsen Booksellers' Choice Award
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
Named a Best Book of the Year by the Boston Globe and Financial Times
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Audiobooks of 2015

Deon Meyer, South Africa's preeminent crime fiction writer, is internationally acclaimed for his razor's-edge thrillers, unforgettable characters, and nuanced portrayals of contemporary life in his native country. The latest pulse-pounder starring Captain Benny Griessel, a lead detective in South Africa's Priority Crimes Investigation unit, delves into a high-profile murder case and the country's burgeoning tech and wine industries.

A week before Christmas, a young photographer discovers a plastic-wrapped corpse amidst the sand dunes north of Cape Town. It doesn't take long for the police to identify the body as that of Ernst Richter―the tech whiz and founder of Alibi, an internet service that provides unfaithful partners with sophisticated cover stories to hide their affairs. Meanwhile, Benny Griessel is called to the scene of a murder-suicide involving a former colleague, and 602 days of sobriety are undone on the spot. He seems determined to drink away his career, but the take-no-sass Major Mbali Kaleni, now his boss, wants Griessel on the Richter case. The murder has already been the subject of fierce media speculation, with questions swirling about the potential for motive: could the perpetrator be one of the countless jilted spouses? An aggrieved client? Before the week is out, an unexpected connection to a troubled family winery comes to light, and Griessel must either quit drinking and close the case, or risk losing everything he loves. Mounting towards a startling conclusion, Icarus is another first-rate novel from the "King of South African Crime."