A cautionary tale about organized crime in modern South Africa, this thrilling mystery introduces unassuming archivist Macaulay Vogel, who is examining a recently discovered cache of old police archives. Sorting out the documents, Vogel is jolted when he comes upon a surveillance file about himself. It's a terrible shock: he doesn't recognize this person at all. "Had he suffered a memory loss in his youth?""Had someone stolen his identity?" To find some answers, he seeks out old friends: a lover, former comrades, and even his nemesis, Boschard, an eerie former security policeman. At the same time Vogel is making his rounds, there are signs of growing racial anger over the excavation of a mysterious accumulation of bones in the center of Cape Town, which might be a secret human burial pit. Amidst the personal and civic confusion, Vogel begins to crack, despairing of his lapsed hopes and the lost love of a woman named Marda.

A cautionary tale about organized crime in modern South Africa, this thrilling mystery introduces unassuming archivist Macaulay Vogel, who is examining a recently discovered cache of old police archives. Sorting out the documents, Vogel is jolted when he comes upon a surveillance file about himself. It’s a terrible shock: he doesn’t recognize this person at all. Had he suffered a memory loss in his youth? Had someone stolen his identity? To find some answers, he seeks out old friends: a lover, former comrades, and even his nemesis, Boschard, an eerie former security policeman. At the same time Vogel is making his rounds, there are signs of growing racial anger over the excavation of a mysterious accumulation of bones in the center of Cape Town, which might be a secret human burial pit. Amidst the personal and civic confusion, Vogel begins to crack, despairing of his lapsed hopes and the lost love of a woman named Marda.