Mixed Blood-Roger Smith

Mixed Blood
Roger Smith
Holt, Feb 2009, $25.00
ISBN 9780805088755

In the United States, American security specialist Jack Burn worries about the impact his recent financial failures will have on his family. When he is offered a chance to stay solvent, he reluctantly accepts the terms offered him. He agrees to join a gang planning to rob a bank.

The plan was perfect; the execution a disaster. Most of the gang and a cop die. Burn escapes with millions, but is wanted by the law and the few robbers who survived the debacle. He, his pregnant wife Susan, and their four years old son Matt relocate to Cape Town, South Africa. Life seems peaceful and good until two meth users invade their home; Jack kills both, but now corrupt Police Inspector Rudi Barnard is scrutinizing the professional use of counter force inside his realm, Cape Flats.

This exciting South African crime caper will grip the audience from the moment Barnard checks on the Americans, which begins the spin out of control somewhat fueled by career felon Benny Mongrel observing his fellow American. Susan will learn she don’t know Jack as he piles lies on top of lies with her and with Barnard. With the cast divided between the innocent and the felonious, fans will enjoy Roger Smith’s tense thriller while humming Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero as increasingly none seem to surface.

Harriet Klausner