Review: Knucklebone by NR Brodie

Ian left his days as a cop behind him, and is now a student; research has overtaken crime as his primary daily focus. However, when he's on a routine call out at the security company that is helping him gather research for his paper, things go awry. A panic button heralds two young men in an apparent robbery, in which one of the duo is pronounced dead on the scene. Yet when questioned, the deceased arrested partner falls into a diabetic coma. yet according to a nurse at the hospital, the young man is afflicted by more than low blood sugar. she tells Ian and Captain Reshma Patel that their suspect has been possessed.

Soon enough, the duo discover that the young man was training to be a sangoma, and that dark deeds previously isolated to urban legends and stories are, in fact, real. In uncovering the young man's history, from magic and mayhem through to muti and money, Ian and Reshma find themselves immersed in a world as far removed from ordinary policing as they could ever imagine.

I was initially hesitant to read anything that promised to marry a traditional detective drama with magic and demons, yet there's no beating around the bush here: NR Brodie has married the two in a union of literary perfection! Knucklebone is as dark and macabre as it is shocking and brilliant, and so cleverly and artfully written that the reader can hear the characters' voices in their head, and feel the goosebumps that appear after a particularly gruesome discovery among the pages. This book is sheer literary brilliance, and creates an immensely enjoyable, albeit horrifying, world.

NR Brodie artfully weaves a story of the ordinary in a backdrop of the extraordinary. Hers is a world in which magic and dark deeds dance beyond the notice of her characters, and yet the power of the inexplicable is both attractive and unavoidable. Furthermore, Brodie's characters are likeable and Sout African without being subjected to horrible bouts of colloquialisms and cliches. Brodie may really be heralding the start of fresh South African literature that honestly and seriously delves into the culture, myths and realities of this amazing country. Don't call yourself a true bibliophile if you've not read this, because it's brilliance begs to be read.

Knucklebone by NR Brodie is published by Pan Macmillan South Africa.