Karavan Press title: Elton Baatjies by Lester Walbrugh

In this anonymity they are able to be themselves, shadows and all, even if only for a few minutes in the day.

The Cape Peninsula carries secrets known only to the wind, the fynbos, and the creatures that live there. Six teenage boys are found raped, murdered, and dumped down the side of its mountains.  

It is two years since the discovery of the first body and Detective Junaid Japtha is no closer to cracking the case. With pressure mounting, and without any tangible evidence, he can only rely on his experience and instinct to track down the killer.  

Fifteen-year-old Tyrone May from Macassar spends his days in limbo. He has no one to talk to. No one listens. He is curious and confused about his feelings. Like most boys, he has yet to develop a sense of his own mortality. It allows for a daring that will dissipate as he grows older, but, for now, Tyrone will accept the friend request a handsome stranger sends him.   

Elton Baatjies is the newly appointed teacher at a local high school. These are his people, and he is soon embraced by the close-knit community. But he is tied to the six dead boys in ways no one could have predicted, and the secrets among them threaten to tear the sleepy mountain town apart. 

Publication date: September 2022

ISBN: 978-1-7764064-7-0

LESTER WALBRUGH is the author of the short story collection, Let It Fall Where It Will (Karavan Press, 2020). Elton Baatjies is his first novel. He lives in Grabouw.