From the author of Death in the New Republic comes another thrilling crime story featuring hard-bitten Johannesburg detective, Jerome Nossel. A distress call from Nossel's old friend, Alex, breaks into the detective's lazy Sunday afternoon. He is propelled into the glamour and sleaze of the city's underworld by a kidnap and a demand for an exotic ransom. Accompanied by Alex's captivating Nigerian wife Ngozi, they scour the fleshpots of Johannesburg, from its mega-rich northern suburbs to its sordid core in the dark city. They are pursued by the crazed steroidal enforcer who answers to only one man - Yuri Kramerov, the pimpmeister of Doornfontein. With time running out, and in their desperate quest to recover the ransom, encounters, characters and places create a Chandler-esque story, with Johannesburg as the main attraction. The Maori approached Alex, who Nossel feared might fall backwards into the freezing black pool, as patently terrified as he was.