WHEN I FIRST contemplated a thriller set amid the “spiralling crime rate and rampant corruption” of the new South Africa, written by an Afrikaner, I felt a twinge of apprehension.

Then I realised what an absurdly racist attitude that was. Stereotypes can be lethal. Deon Meyer is a motorcycle enthusiast – a consultant for BMW Motorrad in South Africa – and one of the sharpest and most perceptive thriller writers around.

Devil’s Peak features the return of his difficult hero Thobela Mpayipheli in a darker role, turned assegai-wielding assassin, killing child molesters to avenge the death in a shootout of his young son. Thobela’s mission is to bring justice to a country where there are people who think that raping a child can cure Aids and the death penalty – to the disgust of the majority of citizens of all colours – has been abolished.

His role as self-appointed executioner becomes lionised in popular mythology as a modern Artemis, the Greek goddess who protected children. The avenger is widely believed to be a woman or a white man using the assegai to deflect police inquiry.

Leading the inquiry is Benny Griessel, a detective and drunk who has been thrown out of his home by his wife until he sobers up. Into the mix steps Christine van Rooyen, the dissolute daughter of a strict Lutheran family turned prostitute, who fears for the future of her own child.

Meyer paints a wonderful picture of the dark side of the rainbow nation with corrupt cops on the take, drug cartels on the make and ingrained racism among the police, who resent “affirmative action” and use “green” as a euphemism for “black”. You have to take a deep breath here and remember that in this society “coloured” usually refers to Asian origins and is, like Xhosa or Zulu, Afrikaner or Anglo, part of a mix that is still learning to respect its own diversity.

The Dutch title of this book translates literally as The Artemis Affair, but Meyer’s translator has done him proud with Devil’s Peak, which is briefly mentioned as a location but is best understood as “devil speak” – nothing in the narrative is exactly as it seems. Against the odds Meyer leaves us with a resolution that is both poignant and supremely satisfying.

In no way is this a negative book about the new South Africa. It makes the place come alive with a breathless urgency that recalls the 1940s Los Angeles of Dashiel Hammet or Raymond Chandler: a bit mad, a bit bad, a bit dangerous, but exotically vibrant, a society in adolescence.

Think of Meyer in the way that you might have regarded a bottle of Cape red a dozen years ago – dark, strong with an unusual but beguilingly moreish taste. If it can produce popular literature as good as this, the new South Africa has a lot going for it.

Devil's Peak by Deon Meyer, translated by K. L. Seegers

Hodder, £14.99; 416pp

Buy the book here for the offer price of £13.49 (free p&p)

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