Icarus Wine Story

The Scots equivalent of the phrase 'Ne'er cast a clout till May is out' is 'Ne'er cast a cloot till May is oot'. One of the features of the countryside around Dunbar at the moment is the hawthorn blossom, which is also known as May blossom. I recently returned to this area with my proper camera, as my mobile phone's camera was not effective on my bike ride.

If you continue on this road, then there are some serious hills on the way to and from Abbey St Bathans, but I turn off on the undulating road leading to Oldhamstocks, where I usually stop for a drink and a liquorice or treacle toffee. The route takes me on a countryside route to Cockburnspath and up the hill to the turning which takes you on to the Abbey St Bathans road.

So, I have been heading east - I always go against the wind at the start of my bike ride - on a 24-mile (39K) route which takes in a fair few hills. We've had an easterly air flow for about four weeks now, thanks to the Jet Stream unfortunately getting stuck to the west of the UK.

I am gradually getting back to some kind of bike fitness, mainly through a series of rides up the hills near Dunbar. During one of these rides, I started reading Deon Meyer's novel 'Icarus', which turned out to be an excellent read.

The story revolves around the murder of Ernst Richter, an entrepreneur who has set up a business providing alibis for errant husbands and wives. We also get an intriguing picture of different areas of Cape Town and the surrounding wine areas. The author presents, in a subtle fashion, South African society with its many racial and economic stresses.

The protagonist is the troubled Benny Griessel, whose problems with alcohol affect both his working and social life. Icarus is a superior crime novel that should be classified as such. Now, the fact that this book is about a group of policemen trying to figure out who killed a man in Cape Town means that it will be categorized as a crime novel.

I've just finished Deon Meyer's excellent novel 'Icarus', and I would certainly return to this author and encourage you to try out one of his books. There is also humor in the book, as well as interesting detail on the development of the South African wine trade. The plot maintains an excellent pace, with careful plotting and a twist right at the end that is hard to see coming.

The reader is led up quite a few garden paths by the author, but Meyer does not lose his nerve at the end of the novel and go for a melodramatic conclusion. If it is to be so categorized, then 'Icarus' should be classified as a superior crime novel.

Icarus wine story