In “Rabbit Hole”, the South African novelist multiplies the characters and scenes of schemes, a complex novel carried out with rare mastery.
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The same scene recurs several times in Mike Nicol’s fantastic novel. A huge beach in Cape Town, South Africa, at low tide. The weather is perfect, the dawn splendid and the waves so gentle. It’s a Cat Stevens morning, adds the novelist who takes a break. In the distance walks a couple suddenly attacked by men who take out knives. A red color appears on the walker’s white t-shirt. Calm, then violence, beauty, then fear. The novelist was born in this city, has long described its extremes, corruption, bloodshed, poverty in the face of the most flashy wealth and unpunished crimes. That day, it is Rick who is murdered and his wife, Angela, despite hiring a private detective, the attackers will not be found. Angela becomes CEO of Amalfi Civils after Rick’s death. It’s a construction company that makes big money. She is helped by her brother Rej, a dubious guy living beyond his means and prone to outbursts of violence and unwelcome alliances. It’s impossible to say more without getting lost in the details because the characters multiply between members of the CIA, South African secret services, spies of all sides, street gangs, and family hatreds.
Mike Nicol handles his big, complex novel with rare mastery, placing, at the center, a couple of private detectives, Fish and Vicky who we have already encountered in previous novels. But he adds to this rhythmic efficiency a keen sense of detail, of description, and above all a unique way of describing the moments that flare up and the multiple schemes to always win more. It gives pride of place to heroines, courageous, ready for combat like the boss, Angela, who stands up against the most rotten guys on earth. Mike Nicol loves his city and from time to time, he catches the wave like a first-class surfer. Throughout his five hundred supercharged pages, he knows how to calm things down, describe a street, listen to a conversation then he shakes everything up and picks up his pace again without ever running out of steam. After five hundred pages, we’re left wanting more and that’s good, other stories with Fish and Vicky are planned.
