James McClure Books

“James McClure's first novel arrives like a slam in the kidneys . . . a gripping style, real characters, and an exotic locale. . . . The Steam Pig will not only keep the reader's nose to the page, it will also make [him] think.”— The New York Times Book Review In the debut mystery featuring Lieutenant Kramer and Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi set in South Africa, a beautiful blonde has been killed by a bicycle spoke to the heart, Bantu gangster style. Why? James McClure was born in Johannesburg. Je published eight wildly successful books in the Kramer and Zondi series. He died on June 17, 2006.

A half-dead man crashes his car at the Iraqi border. He is found to have suffered a rare reaction to the smallpox vaccine. But why are the Iraqi's innoculating their population against a disease which has been wiped out for twenty years? Soon after this, a young Iraqi student at the Institute of Molecular Science in Edinburgh kills himself for no apparent reason. At first there seems to be no connection. But then medical investigator Adam Dewar stumbles on the horrific possibility that the Iraqis could have asked the student to reconstruct the virus from the fragments he had been working on. And then smallpox breaks out on the Muirhouse Estate. The priority is to contain the virus, but with riots breaking out on the estate, and the death toll rising, Dewar is in a race against time to discover the source of the disease and prevent it falling into the hands of a hostile nation. A nation which would be only too willing to hold the world to ransom...

Handsome twelve-year-old Boetie was strangled and stabbed. Was he the victim of a pedophile? On whom was he spying?

The investigation led by Lieutenant Kramer and Sergeant Zondi unfolds as they tackle two seemingly unrelated murders: an adult entertainer found strangled and a candy shop owner shot during a robbery. As they dig deeper, they uncover complexities that suggest these crimes may not be straightforward robberies. With a string of neighborhood incidents under scrutiny, the detectives must unravel the true motives behind the killings and identify the elusive killer before more lives are lost.

A fascinating look at Policing in Liverpool in the early 1980s

Lieutenant Tromp Kramer vom Morddezernat Trekkersburg untersucht in Zululand ein Sprengstoffattentat, bei dem eine junge weiße Frau und ein Polizist ums Leben gekommen sind. Seine Ermittlungen werden jedoch permanent von inkompetenten Kollegen und korrupten Ärzten behindert, dazu kreuzt der Zulu Detective Sergeant Michael Zondi seinen Weg. Kramer heuert ihn für seine eigenen Untersuchungen an, und sie beginnen die gemeinsamen Ermittlungen. Je tiefer sie in den Fall einsteigen, desto rätselhafter wird er – bald schon machen Kramer und Zondi eine Entdeckung, die für beide zur tödlichen Gefahr wird.

Laut dem Dorfpfarrer hatte niemand einen Grund, Hugo Swart, den treuen und angesehenen Bürger, zu töten. Doch am Weihnachtsabend liegt dieser niedergestochen in seiner Küche. Es sieht aus, als könnte das einzige Motiv Geld gewesen sein und so verdächtigt man Swarts Diener, Shabalala, der mittlerweile aufs Land geflohen ist. Detective Michael Zondi verfolgt den Tatverdächtigen in entlegensten Dörfern, während Lieutnant Tromp Kramer mit einer anderen Angelegenheit beauftragt wird: einem Autounfall unter Alkoholeinfluss. Kramer zieht bald Parallelen zwischen beiden Fällen und versucht, den Bewohnern von Trekkersburg Informationen abzugewinnen. Die Behauptungen des Dorfpfarrers entpuppen sich langsam aber sicher als Geflunker.