News and Reviews

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Killer Country, number two in the Revenge Trilogy featuring Mace Bishop and Pylon Buso, has been published by Umuzi and is now on sale while in the UK Payback has appeared from Old Street Publishing.
Of Killer Country the Wordsworth Choice newletter for February says: 'Fast running and full of action, this is a great thriller.'
And then comes Leon de Kock in the Sunday Independent: 'If you have to spend a weekend alone, with only one book for company, you'd want one that reads as slickly and as compellingly as Killer Country'.
And now Andrew Marjoribanks on Fine Music Radio calls Killer Country a 'world-class thriller' as good as anything Michael Connelly has written.
To be followed by Margaret von Klemperer in the Witness with: 'this is a book that will grip you by some painful part of your anatomy and not let go until you have got to the end. Nicol leaves the readers wanting more...'
Karabo Kgoleng on SAfm literature: 'If I lived in Cape Town I'd have come over and hit you with the book for doing what you did.'

From emails and by sms: 'How could you do that?' 'You swine! I don't believe you did that.' 'You're awful.'
'I didn't think you have the courage. But did you have to..?' 'Bastard.' 'What a terrible terrible thing to do, you joyless f--k.' 'Oh for heaven's sake!' 'Really, did you have to do that?' 'You...' 'Sod you!' 'Shit, man!'
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From the reviews of Payback:
Cape Town’s underbelly riotously exposed in this shrewd, wisecracking and funny thriller. This is the crime novel which garnered the most praise - and rightly so - in 2008 as veteran journalist Mike Nicol flexes his creative muscles in a book surely made for a movie. Mace Bishop is the anti-hero, brought to heel by his exotic, wounded wife and their daughter. The price is doing business in Cape Town’s underworld - and surviving, somehow. The villain is a gem all on her own as goodies battle baddies in the shadow of the mountain. Wonderful fun and clever with it. The Serotonin Index: This book will have you gasping all the way: a savage story narrated by a master - Jenny Crwys-Williams in her February 2009 newsletter
Mike Nicol’s first solo foray into crime fiction is a rollicking tale of drugs, arms dealing and international intrigue set on the streets of Cape Town. With a keen ear for the dialogue of the streets and a pair of likeable but tough and fallible characters called Mace and Pylon at its centre, this is crime writing with universal quality and local relevance that leaves Nicol’s contemporaries with a whole lot of catching up to do - Tymon Smith in his Sunday Times list of the Top Ten SA Books of 2008
Sy dialoog knetter soos kleingeweervuur en die storie spaander soos 'n vlakhaas... - Deon Meyer, Boeke Insig
Boei vir Mike Nicol aan 'n stoel vas, druk 'n AK teen sy slaap en se: "Skryf nog, pappie, ons wil lees" - Boeke Insig
A great read, pacy, cool, hard-bitten and hard-hitting - Michiel Heyns, Sunday Independent
A talent deserving wide international recognition - William Saunderson-Meyer, The Weekender
Sit sand tussen jou tande en ril in jou ruggraat - Karin Brynard, Beeld
...[T]he dialogue is brilliant, the writing too, and Payback, has perhaps the coolest ending one is likely to find anywhere - Barbara Ludman, Mail & Guardian
A very fast plot soaked in suspense, makes it utterly compelling - John Dobson, iAfrica.com
Nicol's clipped dialogue and sparse, high-impact prose recall that of revered American recluse Cormac McCathy - Bruce Dennill, The Citizen
10/10 for this gritty, fast-paced thriller - Brian Joss, Constantiaberg Bulletin
The ending hits you with a thump. The clues are there, sure, but they give no hint that the denouement will prove so savage - James Mitchell, Tonight
Payback by Mike Nicol is world class, and this thriller, set in the Mother City, has pace, wonderful characters and brilliant dialogue - Elle's holiday hotlist 2008
EAN: 9781415200469
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*

Out to Score

with Joanne Hichens

From the reviews of Cape Greed - the US edition of Out to Score:
'...a tightly woven narrative whose several strands that are intertwined with the diverse racial and political strands of contemporary Cape Town and move forward quickly and inexorably toward confrontations that manage to avoid the usual cliches' - International Noir Fiction
'...a hard-boiled PI tale [...] combines the street smarts of Elmore Leonard with [...] gritty depictions of South Africa's criminal culture' - a starred review in the Library Journal
'...a sizzling slice of South African noir' - Kirkus Review
'...an accomplished page-turner [...] the prose clipped, the action fast - Publishers' Weekly

From the reviews of Out to Score
Out to Score is a fast-paced, dirty-talking, street-wise page turner ... as nasty a cast of villains as one could wish for and, in the end, two rather likeable heroes - Michiel Heyns, Sunday Independent
At last, a hard-boiled detective novel that does for Cape Town what Carl Hiaasen has done for Miami - Chris Roper, Marie Claire
Mendes and Saldana are going places, right to the top of the bestseller lists. And I can’t wait for the next one - Brian Joss, Plainsman
Miskien is Nicol ons antwoord op Graham Green, 'n skrywer wat daarin kon slaag om 'n ernstige roman uit hierdie sub-genre na vore te bring - Joan Hambidge, Die Burger

EAN: 9781415200025
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Out to Score was published in the US as Cape Greed under the pseudonym Sam Cole.
Advance comments:
South Africa joins the hard-boiled stakes, and in a wondrous dazzling humorous novel. Imagine Ellroy joining forces with Chester Himes, Coffin Ed, and Gravedigger, throw in the spectacular landscape of South Africa, and you’ll get some sense of this wild and daring novel. One prays this is the first in a series – if Tom Sharpe wrote mystery, this would be it – Ken Bruen
Out to Score is a wild, dark, violent, and exotic brew of weary PIs, drug-addled poachers, and master criminals in modern-day Cape Town written by hard-boiled disciples of Elmore Leonard and Ken Bruen. Completely original and appealing – C J Box
A knockout debut. South African authors Nicol and Hichens write better American-style crime fiction than the Americans, capturing the disenfranchised detective with freshness and style. Trust me: this is a rare reading pleasure – April Smith