A middle-aged dentist is found murdered in his sitting room. Against the wall is just one word – written in blood.
GUILTY.
This is the beginning of Guilty, a dark South African crime thriller by acclaimed crime writer Martin Steyn.
Detective Colin Menck is called in to investigate the murder and is convinced from the start that he is dealing with a professional killer. But who would pay someone to kill the dentist in such a gruesome way?
The victim's wife, meanwhile, appears remarkably unmoved by her husband's violent death. This raises questions: Was she involved? What was the motive? And why is the word GUILTY written in blood on the wall?
Another murder – and the same message
Days later, Menck finds himself at yet another murder scene. Again there is bloody writing on a wall.
On the surface, the two victims have little in common. Yet a disturbing pattern begins to form – and both cases point to women who may have had reason to be bitter and angry.
Menck and his difficult new partner quickly realise they are not simply chasing a murderer. They are trying to find a possible next victim before it is too late.
How many names are still on the killer's list? And how many men will still be forced to write the word GUILTY in their own blood?
When guilt is no longer so simple
The core of Guilty does not lie just in the question of who the murderer is. The story also explores a much more uncomfortable question: What happens when someone decides another person deserves to be punished?
Guilt, motive, retribution and the boundary between justice and revenge run through the story as Menck tries to work out what connects the victims – and who could be next.
This makes Guilty a crime thriller in which the reader does not simply follow clues, but is continually confronted with the dangerous assumption that someone may have
Who is Martin Steyn, the author of Guilty?
Martin Steyn's interest in the macabre, criminology and serial killers ultimately led to a career as a crime fiction writer.
His first novel, Dark Trail, won the ATKV Woordveertjie Award for Thriller Fiction in 2015. After that came Guilty, Black Valley and Ransom . Guilty won the same award in 2016, and Guilty is the English translation of it.
Steyn's short story collection, Shadows and Trail Seekers, also contains a novella featuring Detective Colin Menck in the lead role.
With Guilty , Steyn takes readers back to the dark world of murder investigations, hidden motives and the question that haunts the entire story: Who is truly guilty?
See more here.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
