Crime in South Africa--Jassy Mackenzie on SCENE OF THE CRIME

[J. Sydney Jones]

Jassy Mackenzie’s Jo’burg: ‘Top of the Crime Pile’

March 31, 2010 by Scene of the Crime

South African crime novelist Jassy Mackenzie hit the ground running with her 2008 publication, Random Violence, featuring gutsy PI Jade de Jong. Set in contemporary
Johannesburg, the novel earned local acclaim. South Africa’s Sunday
Times declared that this debut “excels in its ability to translate
our propensity for violent crime into a clever plot that could take
place only in South Africa.” Just released in the United
States, Random Violence earned a starred review in Publishers
Weekly, with the critic terming it a “triumphant debut,” and
further noting, “Readers will wish Jade a long fictional career.”

Mackenzie’s 2009 title, My Brother’s Keeper, a finalist in the Best Paperback Original category of the International Thriller Awards, is another gritty novel featuring a
psychopathic villain and also set in Johannesburg, but this one does not
feature Jade. Mackenzie reprises her resilient PI in Stolen
Lives, in which Jade is hired as a bodyguard by a wealthy
housewife whose husband has disappeared. That novel is scheduled for a
2010 publication in South Africa.

Jassy, welcome to Scene of the Crime, and thanks for coming on board to investigate spirit of place in crime fiction.

To read more, go to Scene of the Crime