Book Review – Gruesome

by De Wet Potgieter (Zebra Press) ISBN 9781770229082

Without seeming to sound like a serial killer or maniac, I found this book to be dull and uninteresting.

I felt cheated when passing through the pages as the author, De Wet Potgieter retold gruesome crime stories of South Africa with little enthusiasm or curiosity. I felt that the repetition of work and cases told, although gruesome and horrific were expressed in a mundane and very boring manner.

Investigative journalist Potgieter did not manage to entice me or affect me whilst reading through the crimes and criminals that shook South Africa. Perhaps that was not the intention, but then the book itself has left me ill informed.

Potgieter takes us back to the bloody newspaper headlines of years ago and informs us now on the lives and repercussions of the victims and criminals from these horrific crimes. The crimes will forever be horrendous and in all cases unforgivable along with the story telling talents or journalistic writing in this book.

Unfortunately, on a personal level as an enthusiastic crime and investigation fan, I was not hypnotised or drawn into reading this book after the first short story.