Weeping Waters: Book I of the Inspector Beeslaar Series

This crime fiction/ mystery by Karin Brynard was originally published in 2009 (in Afrikaans) but only translated recently (by Maya Fowler & Isobel Dixon) for this English edition of 2018. Really a knockout book that kept me engaged from beginning to end. I love learning about other cultures and the ins and outs of race relations in post-Apartheid South Africa were all new to me. There were times when I struggled to work through some of the unfamiliar vocabulary, but it never detracted from understanding nor slowed the plot. Brynard was previously a political and investigative journalist, and she knows how to string her words together in this compelling story.
Our main characters are, of course, Inspector Albertus Markus Beeslaar, who, we gradually learn, has left Johannesburg for a supposedly quieter life in a small town on the edge of the Kalahari Desert--it's really hot there! His reasons for leaving are partially revealed through phone conversations with a former lover, who just happened to be the wife of his ex-partner at the police department. What is clear from the beginning is that his new supervisor, in the slightly larger town of Upington, feels Beeslaar has been forced upon him--and there is racially based animosity towards this white detective as well. Beeslaar, for his part, is dealing with two very inexperienced local juniors (both black), Pyl and Ghaap, in response to a series of stock thefts from local farmers, which have recently escalated with the murders of the farmers or their hired help.
The catalyzing event of the book, however, is the brutal murder of an up-and-coming woman artist and farm owner, Frederika Swarts, and her adopted daughter. Estranged sister, Sara Swarts, arrives with a load of guilt for having abandoned her sister to care for their dying father on the family farm. Sara eventually comes to believe that Freddie's death is not, as has been characterized in the press, another in a years' long string of "farm murders," but something unique and personal to her sister. I won't try to explain the significance of "farm murders," a phenomenon that was an eye-opener for me, or to introduce the several likely suspects in the murders. I would agree with one reviewer that, if you like Stieg Larsson, you will probably like this. It is dark in nature, but also rich in character and history and culture. I can't wait for the next translation in the series to come out--hopefully later this year. A bit more detail in this review from Publishers Weekly.