Constable Henk van Reenen is nearly run off the road. When a local farmer's son disappears while investigating, Henk defies his lazy superior. His solo hunt leads him into the Cederberg, where he uncovers a dangerous crime syndicate.
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4. SECRET OF THE CEDERBERG - SA POLICE SERIES
Constable Henk van Reenen’s new post in the remote Bloudoring district begins with a baptism of fire. Long before he reaches the police station, his car fails him on a desolate dirt road with the ominous Cederberg as a backdrop. His hope for assistance is brutally thwarted when a large, powerful American car hurtling towards him does not merely ignore him but deliberately attempts to run him off the road. A brutal act that leaves more questions than answers.
Exhausted and thirsty, Henk finds shelter with the hospitable Senekal family on their farm at the foot of the mountains. Here he meets the captivating daughter, Marie, but also notices a palpable, inexplicable tension when he recounts his story. His experience on the road seems to tear open an unseen wound, especially when it emerges that one of their farmhands had seen a mysterious figure who had a rendezvous with the same car before disappearing once more into the inhospitable Cederberg.
The mystery becomes personal and deadly when the Senekals’ son, Pieter, decides to investigate the suspicious tracks and a few missing sheep on his own. He does not return. To Henk’s frustration, his new commanding officer, the sluggish and aloof Sergeant Gous, is unwilling to act as he deems the matter trivial. Driven by his sense of duty and a growing connection to the Senekal family, Henk decides to ignore the sergeant’s orders and follow the trail himself. The trail leads him to a deserted homestead deep in the mountains. A place seemingly empty, yet bearing the signs of a violent confrontation and revealing the workings of a sinister, organised crime syndicate. Alone, with a superior he cannot trust and surrounded by the enigmatic Cederberg, Henk must unravel the truth. What happened to Pieter Senekal? What deadly secrets does the mountain guard and, in a world of lies and danger, whose hand can he shake and whose back must he watch before it is too late?
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Meiring Fouche is the pseudonym of Francois Alwyn Venter (27/11/1916 - 8/1/1997) and is one of South Africa's top writers who could write on a wide range of subjects. Other pseudonyms he used for his books were Marius de Jongh, Elske te Water, and Rene Stegman. However, under the pseudonym Meiring Fouche, he wrote most of his books and quickly achieved great success, especially with his four "trek" books: Offerland (Land of Sacrifice), Gelofte land (Land of Vow), Geknelde land (Constricted Land), and Bedoelde land (Intended Land). After the premature death of Braam le Roux, F.A. Venter took over the famous Swart Luiperd (Black Leopard) series from Braam le Roux and completed the series of seventy books. Under the pseudonym Meiring Fouche, he also wrote several other series (Pioneers series, Ryk Schoonraad series, Maiden of the Sea series, and Fabel Retief series), of which the Sahara adventure series is certainly one of his very best. He also wrote several other books in series such as the SA Police series, while a few standalone paperback books also came from his pen. In total, F.A. Venter wrote more than ninety paperback books and more than forty hardcover books. F.A. Venter also wrote several short stories. Meiring Fouche wrote six stories in the SA Police series. In short, the SA Police series is about a constable by the name of Kobus Roode. He is a strongly built man with brown hair that is always cut short, so that it looks like a crew cut. His story begins as a student when he and two of his best friends went camping in the Drakensberg. There they uncover a secret weapons arsenal and weapons factory hidden deep underground. In the process, Kobus's two friends die, but Kobus manages to apprehend the villains and so bring the organization's illegal activities to a halt. These events had such a great impact on Kobus's life that he decided there and then to dedicate himself to becoming a constable. Kobus's career advances quickly and he solves one major international case after another. He deals with kidnappers, murderers, animal smugglers, dagga (cannabis) smugglers, and many more. Most of the time he operates in Natal, but at times he is also transferred to Pretoria and Johannesburg to solve cases there that others before him could not. Many times Kobus refuses promotion because it would mean he would have to do office work. For him, there is nothing better than working in nature, on the back of a horse. It is precisely this love of his that leads him to discover villains' secret locations, surprising and exposing them. The last few books in the series are about the experiences of different constables in South Africa. There are constable Ryk Schutte's adventures in South-West Africa, constable Jurie Slabbert's drama in the Karoo, constables Reinhardt Fouche in South-West Africa, Buks Senekal in the Kalahari, Henk van Reenen in the Cederberg, and constable Kobus van Deventer's narrow escape in the Namib desert. Each of these stories is full of action, drama, suspense, and also a bit of romance in between. Every excellently written detective story captivates you from beginning to end, and the stories stay with you long after you have finished reading them.
