Crime fiction, though, is far removed from real world crime, and my plots are pure fiction. Real world crime (everywhere) is mostly sad, sordid, domestic, related to alcohol and drug abuse and tragic socio-economic circumstances. Crime fiction asks for intriguing, often sensational, always wrapped in riddles crime, the sort of thing that is very scarce in reality.

Wessel Ebersohn: If violence is what you want to write about, South Africa is the place to be. Our country is among the ten most violent on the planet. In the last twelve months we have had more murders per head of population than any other country, excepting those in which wars and major civil disturbances are being conducted.

We have a history that is no less violent. Under apartheid violent deaths in the black community came at the hand of both the criminal population and the authorities. Since liberation, as President Mandela put it, "The criminals have also been liberated."

Violent deaths are now as common, per head of population, in the white community, as in the black. In the last year 160 white farmers are reported to have been murdered on their farms, as a campaign that is part political and part criminal takes effect. So serious is the matter that the Johannesburg High Court has ruled as unconstitutional and unlawful the words "Shoot the boer [farmer]," part of the lyrics of a song that is allegedly part of the liberation struggle.

Roger Smith: Good crime fiction, crime fiction that endures, always holds up a mirror to the society in which it is set. Want to know about L.A. in the 40s? Read Chandler. The machinations of American post-war politics? Read Ellroy. Edinburgh in the 90s? Read Rankin. South Africa offers us crime writers an embarrassment of toxic riches, from the grand themes (the spoor of lies and corruption leading straight to the presidency) to the small and intimate (a man in a shack somewhere raping and murdering his baby.) It's all out there.

Michael Sears (of the Michael Stanley duo): One of the big influences on writing crime fiction in South Africa is the relationship between the police and the citizens of the country.  The lack of confidence in the police develops a culture of distrust where people are tempted to take matters into their own hands.  This was a strong and convincing theme in Deon Meyer's Devils Peak and many other local crime novels.

Our novels are set in Botswana and the relationship with the police there is different.  There is no apartheid legacy, and the police are more serious and taken more seriously. Still, the Botswanans are suspicious. Corruption is an issue, and there is a feeling that the police are aligned with the governing party and with wealthy and powerful individuals. This came out strongly in the Segametsi case. A young girl was murdered for body parts for muti [medicine]. The police were unable to solve the case, and when they released the initial suspects, there were riots. One policeman killed a man accused of being an instigator. The suspicion was that powerful figures were behind the killing and that the police were protecting them. Eventually the government had to call in Scotland Yard for an unbiased assessment. But the murderer was never found.

The latest books by these authors are Thirteen Hours (Deon Meyer); Wake Up Dead (Roger Smith); The October Killings (Wessel Ebersohn); and A Deadly Trade (Michael Stanley).  Most of these books are available in the US and UK, and Ebersohn's novel will be published internationally next year.

ITW International Committee Chair for South Africa, Mike Nicol, is a journalist and writer and now a hard-core crime fiction addict. He's published two crime novels - Payback and Out to Score (a co-authorship), and is a founder of the blog Crime Beat.  He lives on Cape Town's peninsula, up a mountain, in the teeth of the wind.