Take a serial killer incarcerated in C-Max, a beautiful, ambitious, black PR who wants to write a book, a small-part actress doing phone sex while waiting for a part in Generations, a struggle hero turned millionaire businessman, various friends, associates and hangers-on, and what do you get?
A lot of murders, mutilations and rape, for one thing. But also an interesting book.
Makholwa’s protagonist, Lucy Khambule, is an ex-journalist who has joined her friend Patricia Moabelo’s PR business. While she’s waiting to see what percentage of the firm will be hers, she gets a call from a serial killer. His name is Napoleon Dingiswayo and he wants someone to write his biography.
Lucy goes to see him and is hooked — too deeply hooked. One day she complains to Dingiswayo about Moabelo, who she believes is cheating her. Days later, Moabelo is found brutally murdered. Does Khambule suspect Dingiswayo arranged this from his C-Max cell? Nope, not a glimmer — although it’s pretty clear to the reader that something rather sinister is going on, especially when other bodies begin turning up.
Makholwa doesn’t like her protagonist very much — she comes across as rather too full of herself. Never mind, Khambule’s actress friend is great fun, and some of the minor characters are also people you might like to know.
The dialogue is uneven — some of it’s good, some stilted, some characters seem to talk much the same. The book is a good read, although it could have been faster paced. Probably the inclusion of so much lifestyle detail helps to slow it down, but for a combination of thriller and chick-lit, that sort of detail is required, and some of it does serve to advance the plot or, in the case of what Khambule wears to C-Max, to cheer up Dingiswayo. Meanwhile, one sees quite a lot of Johannesburg. And assuming the scenes set in C-Max are accurate, Makholwa has done her research well.