![]() He emerges from his drunken haze determined to quit the force, but the take-no-sass Major Mbali Kaleni, now his boss, wants Griessel on the Richter case. ![]() Meanwhile, Benny Griessel is called to the scene of a multiple homicide involving a former colleague, and four years of sobriety are undone on the spot. The only thing found on the corpse is a dead iPhone, but it doesn’t take long for the police to identify the body as that of Ernst Richter-the tech whiz behind MyAlibi, an internet service that provides unfaithful partners with sophisticated cover stories to hide an affair. The fifth pulse-pounder starring Captain Benny Griessel, a lead detective in South Africa’s priority crimes unit, delves into the country’s burgeoning tech and wine industries.Ī week before Christmas, a young photographer discovers a plastic-wrapped corpse amidst the sand dunes north of Cape Town. South Africa’s preeminent crime fiction writer, Deon Meyer is internationally acclaimed for his razor’s-edge thrillers, unforgettable characters, and nuanced portrayals of contemporary life in his native country. I received a Digital Review Copy from the Publisher. I give Icarus 4 Stars out of 5, and a Thumbs Up! If you are ready to explore a different culture, and don’t mind having to jump to the glossary once in a while, then you should give this unique South African mystery series a try. Even though everyone in the book has their funny side, it doesn’t get in the way of the story, but it does allow for a bit of comic relief. Icarus is a serious book, with humor sprinkled in, not a cozy mystery. This series of interviews gives you the history behind the South African wine industry, which then ties back into the murder. At the same time as the investigation is proceeding, you are sitting in on a meeting between a lawyer and her client. The victim was the head of a software company that wrote an app that facilitated marital cheating. I could relate to the messed up thinking that is what an alcoholic has to fight against every day. Meyers handles the struggles that he is going though very realistically. In Icarus, Captain Benny Griessel, who is an alcoholic, falls off the wagon after nearly two years of sobriety. Meyer does include a glossary at the end of the book, so you don’t have to search the web. Most of them are just what they sound like, but every once in a while you may be stumped. The only problem you may have with this series is the sprinkling of South African words and phrases. They each have their traits that define them. So, this year, I tweaked my target recipe, shooting for pretty much what I got out of that first peach wine batch, and got some cool label art to put on the bottle.Īnyway, I guess the moral of the story is something about mistakes, and also that one should not strive above one’s appointed place in the world, lest the gods take notice and strike down with a mighty wine-fist those audacious enough to try something new.I really like this series. ![]() I sure did hate having to blend down that first batch though. The final blend ended up decent it wasn’t one of my best batches but it was a solid wine. The solution I ended up with was to get the last few peaches I could for the season and making a weaker peach wine to blend the first batch with and hit my target. I panicked at first – this was a full barrel of wine, and it was so far off from what I was shooting for that it could even be called a mistake. As it turned out, my guess was way off and I ended up making the wine far stronger than I had intended, but was that ever some good wine. Peach wine I had never done before, so I made a guess at the sugar content of the juice based on some research and measurements, and based the recipe on that guess. I was able to squeeze in beet wine of course, because that’s sort of my thing, as well as peach wine and a batch of raspberry wine at the very tail end of the season. When I first opened this place it was the end of summer and the end of harvest season. “But why,” you ask, “is it called Icarus?” I’m glad you asked, there’s a good story that goes with it, or at least I think it’s a good story. It’s good to get the input of someone else’s perspective in creative undertakings. I never really made the connection between Icarus and the moth with the flame. This one is by Kari Siler, here in Laramie, and man that turned out really nice too. For these strong wines, I’ve decided to commission label art as well. It’s got plenty of peach flavor and some spicy peppery stuff going on as well, so it’s really a lot more full tasting that just peaches. It’s a strong peach wine and it’s pretty tasty. I meant to write this post when it was current, but late is better than never, right? I bottled Icarus the other day (December 16).
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