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This page lists novels that feature the 1950's South African police detective Emmanuel Cooper.

A Beautiful Place to Die

Malla Nunn

2008

A Detective Emmanuel Cooper novel.

"When an Afrikaans police captain is murdered in a small South African country town, Detective Emmanuel Cooper must navigate his way through the labyrinthine racial and social divisions that split the community. And as the National Party introduces the laws to support the system of apartheid, Emmanuel struggles to remain a good man in the face of astonishing power."

Let the Dead Lie

Malla Nunn

2010

A Detective Emmanuel Cooper novel.

"South Africa, 1953. The National Party’s rigid race laws have split the nation and a gruelling poverty grips many on the edges of its society. When former Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper stumbles across the body of a child, Jolly Marks, at the Durban docks, he can little imagine what the discovery will lead him to. Soon Cooper finds himself under suspicion for not only Jolly’s murder, but others as well. The only way he can clear his name is to find out who the real killer was – and he’s got 48 hours in which to do it. His investigations will lead him into Durban’s murky underworld of pimps, prostitutes, strange and sinister preachers, and those on the wrong side of the race laws. For there is more to Jolly’s barbaric murder than Cooper could ever have realized."

Silent Valley

Malla Nunn

2012

A Detective Emmanuel Cooper novel.

Subsequently published as Blessed Are The Dead.

"The body of a beautiful seventeen-year-old Zulu girl, Amahle, is found covered in wildflowers on a hillside in the Drakensberg Mountains, halfway between her father's compound and the enormous white-owned farm where she worked. Detective Sergeant Cooper and Detective Constable Samuel Shabalala are sent to the desolate landscape to investigate. They soon discover that Amahle's life was woven into both the black and white communities in ways they could never have imagined. Cooper and Shabalala must enter the guarded worlds of a traditional Zulu clan and a divided white farming community to gather up the secrets she left behind and bring her murderer to justice. In a country deeply divided by apartheid, where the law is bent as often as it is broken, Emmanuel Cooper fights against all odds to deliver justice and bring together two seemingly disparate and irreconcilable worlds despite the danger that is arising."

Present Darkness

Malla Nunn

2014

A Detective Emmanuel Cooper novel.

"Five days before Christmas, Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper sits at his desk at the Johannesburg major crimes squad, ready for his holiday in Mozambique. A call comes in: a respectable white couple has been assaulted and left for dead in their bedroom. The couple's teenage daughter identifies the attacker as Aaron Shabalala - the youngest son of Zulu Detective Constable Samuel Shabalala - Cooper's best friend and a man to whom he owes his life. The Detective Branch isn't interested in evidence that might contradict their star witness's story, especially so close to the holidays. Determined to ensure justice for Aaron, Cooper, Shabalala, and their trusted friend Dr. Daniel Zweigman hunt for the truth. Their investigation uncovers a violent world of Sophiatown gangs, thieves, and corrupt government officials who will do anything to keep their dark world intact."