209 mm x 137 mm, 336 pages RRP: R170, ISBN 978-1-4152-0046-9 Publication date: 26 March 2008, Category: Crime Fiction Description Set in Cape Town at the turn of the 21st century this crime novel’s protagonists are two former arms smugglers turned security operators who offer protection to the rich and famous doing business or holidaying in the city. When an old contact calls in a favour, Mace and Pylon become embroiled in the city’s nightlife and recreational drug scene and with Pagad, the Islamic organisation that is intent on ridding the city of gangsters and druglords. In the course of the novel’s fast-paced action, Mace’s six-year-old daughter becomes the primary target of Pagad’s lawyer, Sheemina February, and Mace is further entangled in the complications of protecting two Italian couturiers who are nevertheless mysteriously murdered. Payback is about crime in the true sense: a fictive world where the pervading social order is criminal. The protagonists are streetwise, fast talkers who, in contrast to the heroes of other local crime writers, are not there to solve crimes so much as to provide a thin shield against a violent world. Payback is Mike Nicol’s second crime novel after Out to Score, co-written with Joanne Hichens. From Payback, page 7 Mace Bishop, wearing sunglasses, said, ‘There are people I’m happy to offer my services to, Ducky. And those I take on because I owe.’ He owed Ducky Donald Hartnell for five rpgs, two dozen Chinese aks, and an assortment of pistols, grenades, ammunition. A debt Ducky had let slide fifteen years. Fifteen years back Ducky’s son Matthew was ten years old. When Ducky called in the favour, Mace had heard tell of Matthew as a stuttering dipshit cokehead running a nightclub that daddy set up. ‘I’d rather come to an arrangement,’ Mace told Ducky over breakfast at Café Paradiso up Kloof, among the young suits, male and female, execs one and all. ‘Sure you would,’ Ducky said. ‘But a payback I don’t need, Mace. I need someone like you. A ruthless cold bugger. To be a babysitter.’ To read on Mike Nicol on writing crime fiction: "When I look back, as one shouldn’t, I suppose my move into writing crime fiction was inevitable. After all, in the previous novels there’d been a foray into diamond dealing, into outlaws engaged in human trafficking, into gun-running and the arms trade. So it was probably just a matter of time before my resistance wore down." Read the full article on LitNet here. From the reviews: Nicol’s clipped dialogue and sparse, high-impact prose recall that of revered American recluse Cormac McCarthy. — Bruce Dennill, The Citizen, 8 May 2008 More please, Mike. — James Mitchell, Tonight, 8 May 2008. Read the complete review. … a top rate crime writer … a very fast plot soaked in suspense … utterly compelling …'Payback' is gripping throughout; don't forget to buckle up. — John Dobson, iafrica.com, 15 June 2008. Read the complete review. E-mail us a comment on this book. (Comments may be edited and used on this website.) To buy this book www.exclusivebooks.com www.kalahari.net home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za