Detective Roode investigates murders by a barefoot killer. On a remote farm, he's attacked by a superhuman force. Amid legends of a vengeful spirit, he suspects the residents are part of a deadly plot hiding a darker truth.
Keywords7. SPIRIT OF THE WITCH DOCTOR - SA POLICE SERIES
In the shadow of the Magaliesberge, a rural community is plagued by a series of gruesome and inexplicable murders. The victims are literally torn asunder, and the only clue is the tracks of a single barefoot man. The case is so bizarre that the local police are left powerless, and head office dispatches their finest young detective, Sergeant Kobus Roode, to achieve the impossible. Is this the work of a bloodthirsty beast, or a human with the soul of a monster?
His investigation leads him to Orinoco, the remote tobacco farm of the affluent yet enigmatic Louis de Goede and his beautiful, fiery daughter, Helene. Kobus’s first night on the farm explodes into a nightmare of violence. A lightning-fast attack that claims the life of his faithful dog is followed by a desperate pursuit through the dark woods. He soon realizes that he is not dealing with a single killer, but with a force that seems superhuman and inexorable. In a violent confrontation, he manages to wound one of the creatures and tear a small scrap of khaki material from it. It is a clue that raises more questions than it answers, especially when it mysteriously vanishes the following morning.
As fear paralyzes the community and ancient legends of a witch doctor’s vengeful spirit begin to circulate, Kobus suspects that the true evil is far closer than anyone imagines. On Orinoco, no one is truly who they seem to be. Between the eccentric farmer with his secret experiments, the jealous visitor Andre la Verne, and the terrified farmhands, Kobus realizes he is caught in a web of deceit where the line between man and monster blurs. He is fighting not only an unseen foe of unimaginable strength, but also a cold-blooded plot festering deep in the heart of the farm. To uncover the truth, he will have to face the spirit of the witch doctor, but is this spirit supernatural, or the terrifying product of a deranged human mind?
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Gerrie Radlof is the pseudonym of Gerrit Lubbe van Zyl (27/11/1923 - 20/9/1971) and is another one of South Africa's top writers who died at a relatively young age in a car accident outside Melkbosstrand. He is especially known for his extremely popular Buiter books (hardcover), but also reached great heights with his well-known Oloff the Pirate paperback series of stories. Then there is also his slightly lesser-known Ramala series, which is, however, his longest series of books, and also the Tamar series, which consists of only two books. Under Gerrie Radlof, he also wrote several books in the SA Police series and also the Swerwer Speurder (Wanderer Detective) series. Gerrie Radlof wrote six stories in the SA Police series. In short, the SA Police series is about a constable by the name of Kobus Roode. He is a strongly built man with brown hair that is always cut short, so that it looks like a crew cut. His story begins as a student when he and two of his best friends went camping in the Drakensberg. There they uncover a secret weapons arsenal and weapons factory hidden deep underground. In the process, Kobus's two friends die, but Kobus manages to apprehend the villains and thus bring the organization's illegal activities to a halt. These events had such a great impact on Kobus's life that he decided there and then to dedicate himself to becoming a constable. Kobus's career takes off quickly and he solves one major international case after another. He deals with kidnappers, murderers, animal smugglers, dagga (cannabis) smugglers and many more. Most of the time he finds himself in Natal, but at times he is also transferred to Pretoria and Johannesburg, to solve cases there that others before him could not solve. Many times Kobus refuses promotion, because it would mean that he would have to do office work. There is nothing he enjoys more than working in nature, on the back of a horse. It is precisely this love of his that leads him to discover the secret places of villains and to surprise and expose them there. Each of these stories is full of action, drama, suspense and also a little bit of romance in between. Every excellently written detective story captivates you from beginning to end and the stories stay with you long after you have finished reading them.
