The Woman in the Blue Cloak - A Benny Griessel Novel
Deon Meyer
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Summary
The Woman in the Blue Cloak marks Meyer’s return to his beloved Benny Griessel series. Meyer is a world-class thriller writer. He writes gripping books with inventive plots, realistic characters, and universal themes. The Woman in the Blue Cloak is a departure from Meyer’s previous work only in its brevity: just over 30,000 words, it is an accessible, fast read that will bring more fans to the Griessel series. This is a format which has seen considerable success in the past: Gillian Flynn’s 2015 novella The Grownup has sold nearly 50,000 copies according to Bookscan. Readers of Donna Tartt will enjoy seeing the literary reappearance of Carel Fabritius, whose painting “The Goldfinch”—featured prominently in Tartt’s novel of the same name—was displayed in a 2014 exhibit at the Frick Collection in New York that had visitors lining around the block in frigid temperatures for hours. Meyer has a devoted and growing following in the U.S., with avid fans across the crime community, including luminaries such as Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, and Grove Atlantic’s own Thomas Perry. Meyer’s previous book, the standalone novel Fever, was named an Indie Next Selection and an Amazon Best Book of the Month (Science Fiction and Fantasy) and commended by Stephen King as “Reminiscent of The Stand and The Passage. Great stuff.” Meyer’s most recent Benny Griessel thriller, Icarus, was shortlisted for the 2016 CWA International Dagger Award and the Nielson Booksellers’ Choice Award. It was named a Best Book of the Year by the Boston Globe and Financial Times and was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Audiobooks of 2015. An international bestseller, Meyer is known as the “King of South African Crime.” His books have been published in 27 languages and have netted just under 60,000 copies in all formats in the U.S. alone.