Let the Dead Lie

Emmanuel Cooper is a changed man

Forced to resign from his position of Detective Sergeant and reclassified as mixed race, he winds up powerless and alone in the tough coastal city of Durban, mixing labouring with a bit of surveillance work for his old boss, Major van Niekerk.

Patrolling the freight yards one night, Cooper stumbles upon the body of a young white boy and, the detective in him cannot, or will not, walk away. When two more bodies - this time black women - are discovered at his boarding house, he unwittingly becomes the prime suspect in a triple murder case.

At van Niekerk's behest, Cooper is given 48 hours to clear his name and - unofficially - solve the three murders.

And so, temporarily back to being a European detective sergeant, he launches headlong into Durban's seedy underworld, a vipers' nest of prostitution, drug running and violence run by a colourful cast of characters including wannabe Indian gangsters; a mysterious figure who drives a white De Soto convertible; a Zion Gospel preacher, and the exquisite yet streetwise Lana, who also happens to be van Niekerk's mistress...