The Top Prisoner of C-Max, by Wessel Ebersohn

The Top Prisoner of C-Max, by Wessel Ebersohn. Random House Struik Umuzi. Cape Town, South Africa 2012. ISBN 9781415201794 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0179-4

The Top Prisoner of C-Max, by Wessel Ebersohn. Random House Struik Umuzi. Cape Town, South Africa 2012. ISBN 9781415201794 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0179-4

Wessel Ebersohn's crime novel "The Top Prisoner of C-Max" is another story about police phsychologist Yudel Gordon in South Africa. The following chapter beginns in the maximum-security correctional facility, Pretoria.

Wessel Ebersohn  

From where he was standing at the railing, Yudel Gordon had a clear view of the exercise yard and the work team that was digging a drainage trench on the far side. They were some sixty or seventy metres from him. The team was made up of three prisoners with picks to loosen the hard ground, one with a spade to shovel away the dirt and one more, a supervisor. He followed a few paces behind the others.The nearest guard was almost as far from the five men as Yudel himself. From his box on the southern inner wall, the guard should have had a clear view of the men in the team, but he had his back to them. Something on the narrow lawn between the inner and outer walls seemed to have drawn his attention.Only one other guard should have been able see the work team from his position on the north-west corner. Yudel looked for him, but the box seemed to be empty. Across the intervening distance, he saw what he thought was a rifle barrel, pointing skyward, a short section of it visible above the protective barrier in the guard box. It was against regulations for him to have deserted the guard box without a replacement, and unforgivable to have left his rifle there. But it was some distance away and Yudel could not be sure. There were no guards in the yard itself. The three men with the picks were working to the steady rhythm of their own chanting, their voices deep and melodious. The picks were rising and falling to a beat as precise as that of the instruments in a symphony orchestra. The language of the chant was Zulu, and Yudel understood no word of it. Puffs of dust rose from the hard, sun-baked dirt every time the picks landed.As the men moved between the markers that outlined the position of the trench that was to be dug, the fourth man followed, shuffling the dirt into a pile that ran parallel to the trench. They would have to work the length of the trench at least six times before they were deep enough. Not that any of this was of interest to Yudel. He was far more interested in the make-up of the team and the choice of the supervisor. As Yudel watched, the supervisor trampled the stub of a cigarette to extinguish it. Further down the yard, well beyond the work team, another group of prisoners was gathered, thirty or forty of them. They were in the yard to exercise. A few of them were kicking an old, misshapen soccer ball back and forth without much enthusiasm. The others were watching the work team. At their centre stood a short, heavily built man. Yudel knew that his name was Enslin Kruger and that he was here because of the role he had played in organised crime. Just what his position had been in the hijacking and prostitution rings that formed the basis of the charges against him had never become clear in the trial. He offered no explanations, only a flat denial in the face of all evidence to the contrary. The sentence had been a surprisingly light two years, the judge explaining his decision by the fact that Kruger s was a first offence and that it was not proven that he had been involved in any of the gang's killings. [...]

This is an excerpt from the crime novel: The Top Prisoner of C-Max, by Wessel Ebersohn.

Title: The Top Prisoner of C-Max
Author: Wessel Ebersohn
Genre: Crime novel
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Umuzi
Cape Town, South Africa 2012
ISBN 9781415201794 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0179-4
Softcover, 15 x 22 cm, 272 pages

Ebersohn, Wessel im Namibiana-Buchangebot

The Top Prisoner of C-Max

The Top Prisoner of C-Max

The Top Prisoner of C-Max is a South African crime novel set in a maximum-security correctional facility in Pretoria.

Hängt ihn auf, er ist doch schwarz

Hängt ihn auf, er ist doch schwarz

Der Südafrika-Krimi "Hängt ihn auf, er ist doch schwarz" erschien 1981 unter dem englischen Originaltitel "A Lonely Place To Die".

Um der Gerechtigkeit willen

Um der Gerechtigkeit willen

Der Südafrika-Roman "Um der Gerechtigkeit willen" erschien 1980 unter dem englischen Originaltitel "Store Up the Anger".