Byleveld: dossier of a serial sleuth

Book excerpt: South Africa’s super detective shares his life and his most famous cases Former Brigadier Piet Byleveld is recognised worldwide as one of the best detectives of our time. If you commit murder and Piet Byl is called in, your place in jail is booked. If you harmed children and he's on your case, you’ve sealed your own fate. And if you’re a serial killer on the loose, he will not stop before you are behind bars. This book reopens the dockets of numerous murders that this courteous detective has solved over the years. Gruesome, tragic, exciting – and with the satisfaction that justice had prevailed. In-between we get the measure of the man Byleveld: how he matured in the tough world of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad; how he prevailed over deep personal setbacks; and the values this farm boy carried with him to make an unprecedented success of society’s grimmest job.