Smith's debut is a fast-paced crime story set in Cape Town, South Africa, where an uneasy relationship exists among white, black, and "colored" people of varying ethnicity. Jack Burn, an American security-systems expert, fled the United States with wife and child in tow following his forced participation in a bank robbery during which a cop was killed. Now living in the wealthy heights of Cape Town, he and his family find their life further roiled when two thugs on meth invade their home one night. In order to save his pregnant wife and young son from harm, Jack is forced to kill both men. This event will threaten his marriage and his son's life; entangle him in the affairs of Benny Mongrel, an ex-con also trying to escape a desperate past; and put him in the crosshairs of fat Rudi Barnard, a corrupt Afrikaner cop who kills with the ease of a psychopath. Cleverly plotted, this is a gripping thriller that follows believable (if sometimes grotesque) characters along a desperate rush to ruin. The brutal landscape will remind readers of Deon Meyer's best South African novels. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 10/1/08.]-Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Phoenix (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Screenwriter Smith offers a gritty tale of corruption and vengeance set in South Africa in his absorbing debut. On the verge of financial ruin, American Jack Burn, a security specialist, reluctantly joined a bank robbery plot that he hoped would save his family from disaster. The scheme ended badly, with most of his accomplices dead, along with a policeman, turning Burn, who made off with millions, into a wanted fugitive. Under a new identity, Burn has succeeded in making a new life with his wife and four-year-old son in Cape Town, South Africa. Their tenuous stability ends after two meth-heads invade the Burnses' home and threaten violence. While Jack manages to kill the intruders and dispose of the bodies, the incident draws the unwelcome attention of Insp. Rudi Barnard, a dirty cop who rules the area known as Cape Flats. The grim denouement may not satisfy all readers, but Smith's taut prose bodes well for future thrillers from his pen. Author tour. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

An American attempting to outrun his past runs afoul of Cape Town locals on both sides of the law in this debut thriller. After Jack Burn participates in a bank robbery that leaves a cop dead, he and his pregnant wife decide to start a new life with their four-year-old son in this bustling city on Africa's southern tip. Things are going well until two small-time gangbangers, high on crystal meth, decide to break into Burn's house, terrorize his family and take what they want from his home. Of course the gangsters don't know about Burn's criminal past or his military training. Before things have a chance to get really ugly, both gangsters wind up dead on the floor, victims of Burn's skills with a kitchen knife. Being a wanted fugitive, he can't go to the police, so he's forced to dispose of the bodies himself. This sets off a complicated chain of events that thrusts Burn into the midst of Cape Town's dark, confusing underworld. He finds himself caught amidst three opposing forces: Rudi "Gatsby" Barnard, an obese, foul-smelling crooked cop; Benny Mongrel, a gangbanger turned security guard who witnessed the break-in from his post at a building site across the street; and Disaster Zondi, a reformer from the capital who is trying to clean up the local police department. Smith does an outstanding job of bringing Cape Town to life, taking us through the twists and turns of the local criminal world and the confusing labyrinth of racial identity in post-apartheid South Africa. His prose is crisp and efficient, but unfortunately, beneath this book's fascinating and vividly conjured location lies a pretty standard story peopled with pretty standard players. Genre fans will find nothing objectionable, but others may long for something new, or at least for characters with a little more depth. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

South Africa is quickly earning a place for itself as an A-list setting for noir-tinged crime fiction. Following in the footsteps of Deon Meyer (Heart of the Hunter, 2004), first-novelist Smith finds in racially embattled Cape Town the ideal location for a classic wrong-man-in-the-wrong-place thriller. Jack Burn, a gambler turned reluctant bank robber, flees the U.S. with $3 million, hoping to start a new life with his pregnant wife and son in Cape Town. It all goes bad, however, when a random home invasion sets Burn on a collision course with Rudi Gatsby Barnard, an obese and very bent cop whose passion for violence is equaled only by his dedication to Jesus. Smith plays out the downward spiral of his plot skillfully, drawing on that chilling sense of inevitability that is at the heart of the best noir, but he really shines in the nuanced portraits of his secondary characters, especially those struggling to exist in Cape Town's ghetto. Like George Pelecanos, Smith captures the humanity burning in lives trapped by poverty and prejudice without sentimentalizing those lives or downplaying the havoc they can produce. A fine debut.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2009 Booklist