BOOKS
BY CHARIS TORRANCE
More than 30 years into his writing career, Deon Meyer discusses his enduring detective duo, bringing his crime fiction to the screen, and the stories still to come.
With a new Benny Griessel novel, Scorpio Rising, and Blood Safari adapted for the M-Net series Invisible, Deon Meyer has a lot to keep him busy. He’ s come a long way from the journalist who wrote short stories for Huisgenoot.
“ I never dreamt any of this would happen when I started writing fiction,” he laughs.“ It would have been too strange to dream of. It’ s been a wild ride, an unexpected and wonderful journey that I never envisaged, and I’ m incredibly grateful for it.”
FINDING HIS AUDIENCE Readers familiar with Meyer’ s success may be surprised to learn that his books initially sold only modestly in Afrikaans. It was only when they were published in English, French, and German that he began gaining wider recognition and winning awards.
The television adaptation of Dead at Daybreak, broadcast as the KykNET series Orion, helped change that.
“ That changed my profile in Afrikaans and I started selling more books in my home language. That was a milestone because, above all, you want to do well in your own country and mother tongue.”
Today, Meyer’ s novels and short story collections have been translated into more than 25 languages. His latest novel, Scorpio Rising, brings detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido together again. The duo have become central to his work, although Meyer never planned it that way.
14 INBOUND SA / NOVEMBER 2026