La palabra «ex» marca la vida de Emmanuel ­Cooper: ex soldado, ex oficial de la policía judicial, ex hombre blanco. Para ganarse la vida, Cooper se dedica a vigilar en secreto el sórdido puerto de Durban. Pero todo cambia cuando el brutal asesinato de un niño lo obligue a salir de entre las sombras y deba esquivar a la policía para llevar a cabo su propia investigación extraoficial. En poco tiempo se producen otros dos asesinatos similares y Cooper se convierte en el principal sospechoso. Se sumerge en los bajos fondos de Durban en busca de respuestas y descubre que los asesinatos son parte de una conspiración internacional por el control político de Sudáfrica. Con la presión de las nuevas leyes de ­segregación racial, deberá encontrar al asesino antes de que la policía de Durban le cargue a él con la culpa de esos crímenes.

Detective Emmanuel Cooper has lost his job, but not his passion. Working ostesibly as a nightwatchman at the Durban docks in South Africa, he is moonlighting for his former boss, Major von Niekirk when a young slumdweller/gofer dies from a slashed throat. Befriending a working girl, with a myriad of underworld contacts, Cooper is arrested for the murder and then released for 48 hours to solve the crime and bring those responsible to justice. ( )

This is the second Detective Emmanual Cooper book, which is set in South Africa in the 1950’s when apartheid laws were introduced. It is a fast-paced interesting crime story rife with moral and racial conundrums. ( )

Let the Dead Lie is set in 1950s port town of Durban, South Africa where former Detective Emmanuel Cooper is dealing with the aftermath of inflaming the Security Branch in A Beautiful Place to Die. With no police badge and a different race identification card, Cooper now works undercover in the Victory Shipyards doing surveillance for his former boss, Colonel Van Niekerk.

When Emmanuel discovers the dead body of a ten-year old white errand boy, he cannot let the crime go even though he know it will cause him serious problems. As he becomes a suspect in the crime he's given 48 hours to solve it or end up in jail as the murderer. Several complications and interwoven connections expose layers of corruption and danger. The plot takes so many twists and turns that it isn't possible to guess the outcome. The story gets more and more intriguing as the real facts of the boy's killing are exposed with countless characters, policemen and spies. The boy's killing is only a small part of this story.

This suspenseful novel is taut, well written and tightly paced. The reader is immersed into the culture and the atmospherics of the unjust and complex color dynamics of South Africa. Throughout the novel, we are confronted with the race laws and the cruel realities of living at a time where identity is granted only through being officially white. This book develops the series with a more intimate look at Emmanuel Cooper and moves the series forward in a new and interesting plot twist. The insights into his character become even more fascinating here as past and present combine to create one of the most fascinating literary characters I've ever read about. Sometimes an author's work will just “grab” you. This has been my experience so I can't recommend this series enough.
( )

Nunn once again gives us a very revealing glimpse into South African life under the ruling National Party's segregation laws. I thought the first book in the series, A Beautiful Place to Die, was excellent. Unfortunately this second book was a struggle to read due to the inclusion of too much from the previous book and an absolutely glacial pace. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement; however, because of that first book, I will continue with the series. ( )