A Beautiful Place To Die, by Malla Nunn

"Murder itself is not interesting. It is the impetus to murder, the passions and terrors which bring it to pass and the varieties of feelings surrounding the act that make a sordid or revolting event compulsive fascination. Even the most ardent readers of detective fiction are not much preoccupied with whether a Colt Magnum revolver or a Bowie knife was used to dispatch the victim. The perpetrator's purpose, the 'why', is what impels them to read on. They need to find out what has gone on his head, whether revealed through action, dialogue, mental activity or the stream of consciousness. They need to follow what goes on in the minds of others who come within his range, observe him, fear him, or suffer at his hands."~Ruth Rendell

"If you want to show the violence that lives behind the bland faces that most of us present to the world, what better vehicle can you have than the crime novel?"~Julian Symons

"By the end he only read novels that began with 'A shot rang out'.~Martin Amis (of his father, Kingsley Amis)

Huey Mitchell serves up one of the more interesting police procedurals that has come along in a while. Set in South Africa in 1952 at the dawn of that country's disastrous embrace of Apartheid, A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE by Malla Nunn, proceeds to break new ground for the genre. The author's treatment of race, gender, sex, nationalism and morality sets it apart from conventional detective stories. It goes where others fear to tread, and does it with flare.

In most crime novels we expect the perpetrator to have a thing or two to hide. In this well paced yarn, it seems everyone is hiding something, including the chief investigator! It proves in the telling to be more than a question doing justice to the killer of one man, but to those holding a knife to the neck of innocence itself.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS



• What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?

• What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think she is trying to get across to the reader?

• Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments?

• How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?

• In what ways do the events in the book reveal evidence of the author's world view?

• Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?