Wake Up Dead A Cape Town Thriller [Paperback]

On a blowtorch-hot night in Cape Town, American ex-model Roxy Palmer and her gunrunner husband, Joe, are carjacked, leaving Joe in a pool of blood. As the carjackers make their getaway, Roxy makes a fateful choice that changes her life forever. Soon she is caught in a wave of escalating violence in the beautiful and brutal African seaport. With savage plotting and breakneck suspense that end in a shattering climax,Wake Up Deadconfirms Roger Smith as one of the world's best new thriller writers.

Smith's writing is astonishing. . . . Read this only if you don't flinch. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Impossible to put down. Martha Woodroof, NPR.org

The Cape Town setting recaptures all the blood and menace that time and nostalgia have effaced from Raymond Chandler's mean streets--and redoubles them. . . . Smith also leavens the book with humor, grim and otherwise. The Philadelphia Inquirer

If you are a fan of George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane, give Roger Smith a close look. Bookpage

A stellar thriller from South African author Smith. Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Roger Smith, an accomplished screenwriter, director, and producer, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and now lives in Cape Town. He is the author of the thrillerMixed Blood, and is writing a third novel.