Pull out your index cards, measuring cup and reading glasses. Cape Greed, written by the team of Mike Nicol and Joanne Hichens, at first may make you think you've picked up the latest edition of 'Julia Childs, Cooking with Master Chefs'. But if your mouth waters while cruising through the first chapter--reading the detailed preparation of a delicacy with aphrodisiac powers--your mind will delight in the unusual flavor Nicol and Hichens have cooked up in their debut novel, set to be released in the US this fall.Set in South Africa, the writing duo takes you from the shorelines of Cape Town and all points in between, in a tale that will take American readers to a land relatively few will have visited themselves. Of course, it may be a little bit of a culture shock, but no-worries, you won't even notice an accent
The book is already published in South Africa under the title of, Out To Score, but will be released in the land of the free and home of the brave as, Cape Greed. And in the words of Gordon Gecko, "Greed is Good".
The excitement of the story is three-fold. The backdrop of the tale--the bitter and deadly war between rival gangs for one of the most prized aphrodisiacs in the East, namely abalone--a delicate and sought after mussel in a beautiful mother of pearl shell.
Of course, in South Africa, just like here in the states and everywhere in the world, people will kill for money and good lovin' and abalone represents both.
Two private eyes are investigating what appears to be two different cases. A guy with a perennially bad haircut, aptly named, Mullet, has been hired by a woman who thinks her husband is hiring "rent-boys". I believe here in the states we would call rent boys, young male prostitutes. Okay, maybe there is a little bit of an accent in the writing but that's part of the fun of the book.
Mullet's partner, Vincent is hot on the trail of abalone thieves pilfering from a local farm. Little do the two PI's know, at first, that the crimes are related.
But the real curve ball is in the journey the authors take us on. Part murder mystery thriller, part National Geographic, part culinary class.
One review comes in saying, "(Out to Score) Cape Greed, is a wild, dark, violent, and exotic brew of weary PIs, drug-addled poachers, and master criminals in modern-day Cape Town written by hard-boiled disciples of Elmore Leonard and Ken Bruen. Completely original and appealing."
That's great praise for Nicol and Hichens for their maiden voyage into crime fiction.
So who are these crime writing imports? Joanne has worked as an artist, a lecturer, and a therapist at a psychiatric hospital before turning to writing and editing full-time. Mike was writing for a South African socio-political magazine in the eighties. She was an art director. He fancied becoming a words-smith. Years later they talked about writing a book together. They hammered out some ideas and voila... Cape Greed was born. Joanne says, "...it was a marriage of mean and nasty minds--we're both into hard-boiled crime fiction."
Both have a penchant for pushing the boundaries and thus far it's a literary marriage made in hard-bound.
Joanne says they wrote in tandem. Mike picks up the story from there: "We had a number of 'editorial' meetings - many of them at the beach in the early morning - where we thrashed out the story ideas. The plot was largely handled through an exchange of emails - in fact email made the process a lot smoother and easier to manage than would have been the case twenty or so years ago."
Joanne says they jointly came up with characters, plot lines, story ideas and gave each other carte blanche to surprise each other with interesting character traits and plot twists.
As far as POV is concerned, you'll hear what everybody in the room is thinking. Mike and Jo like bringing the reader into the thought process of their villains as well as their good guys, and have explored characters in depth.
Of course there's, Mullet, an ex-cop who's running a small dope dealing business clandestinely alongside his Private Eye business, and there's his not so trusty partner, Vincent ...who's hardly much help as he tries to stay off booze, but there's also a host of truly nasty baddies. Watch out for Jim Woo and his Triad connections.
Another baddie, Arno Loots, who has a handshake like a "clutch of bones."
And it wouldn't be fresh fiction that's fun to read without Mullet's one-legged, ex drug-addict girlfriend, Rae Valentine. Apart from being madly in love with her mullet wearing boyfriend, she has private eye aspirations of her own!
Mystery loves company!
The subject matter will be new to the pallet of American readers. Instead of smoky rooms and back street alleys, the story plays out in the lush surroundings of a bay city - in fact Cape Town is one of the top tourist destinations of the world - with a population of three-million. And the action takes place in the foreground of the Indian Ocean. Joanne explains, "I was really interested in the fact that the shellfish abalone is harvested from the sea and smuggled illegally out of South Africa, and sold in the East as an aid to boost virility - never mind Viagra, if you have a sprinkling of powdered abalone on your dinner you'll perform like a bull! That's a common belief in China. It's just another example of man's greed, and how people in general will exploit anything for their pleasure."
See, only our geography is different.
If you have a moment, dive into Cape Greed by our neighbors to the Southeast. And while the book is expected to hit the Atlantic this fall, worry not. Of course there's a sequel.
Hey, where did I put my abalone sandwich? I have a date tonight.
Paula L. Tutman is an Emmy Award winning journalist and award winning author of DEADLINE!, currently working as a TV journalist in Detroit. She has some 30 years in the news business, obviously beginning her career when she was six...no, make that three. Using her background as a former police reporter, she weaves real life stories and experiences into compelling mystery thrillers. Her second novel, part two of a series is due November 2009.
