Buy new:
$7.99$7.99
FREE delivery: Friday, March 31 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $1.59
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.99 shipping
81% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
89% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
86% positive over last 12 months

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


Thirteen Hours: A Benny Griessel Novel (Benny Griessel Mysteries) Mass Market Paperback – September 6, 2011
Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $36.67 | $14.98 |
Enhance your purchase
“Deon Meyer is one of the unsung masters. Thirteen Hours proves he should be on everyone’s reading list. This book is great!” ―Michael Connelly
Winner of the 2011 Boeke Prize Fanatics Choice Award
Shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger Award
Finalist for the 2011 Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine’s Barry Award for Best Thriller
Finalist for the Sunday Times (South Africa) Fiction Prize
One of Deadly Pleasures Best Books of the Year
One of the “Deathly Dozen” best books of the year by Margaret Cannon, Globe & Mail
One of January Magazine‘s best crime novels of 2010
Named the “Most Thrilling Unputdownable Read of 2010” by ReactionsToReading.com
One of The Independent‘s “50 Best Summer Reads”
Winner of the 2011 Barry Award for Best Thriller
Internationally acclaimed, prize-winning thriller writer Deon Meyer has been heralded as the “King of South African Crime.”
In Thirteen Hours, morning dawns in Cape Town, and for homicide detective Benny Griessel it promises to be a very trying day. A teenage girl’s body has been found on the street, her throat cut. She was an American―a PR nightmare in the #1 tourist destination in South Africa. And she wasn’t alone. Somewhere in Cape Town her friend, Rachel Anderson, an innocent American, is hopefully still alive.
On the run from the first page of Thirteen Hours, Rachel is terrified, unsure where to turn in the unknown city. Detective Griessel races against the clock, trying to bring her home safe and solve the murder of her friend in a single day. Meanwhile, he gets pulled into a second case, the murder of a South African music executive. Griessel’s been sober for nearly six months―156 days. But day 157 is going to be tough. A #1 best seller in South Africa and published to rave reviews, Thirteen Hours is an atmospheric, intensely gripping novel from a master storyteller. You simply can’t put it down.
- Print length560 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGrove Press
- Publication dateSeptember 6, 2011
- Dimensions4.2 x 1.5 x 6.8 inches
- ISBN-100802145450
- ISBN-13978-0802145451
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Frequently bought together
- +
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Review
Deon Meyer is one of the unsung masters. Thirteen Hours proves he should be on everyone's reading list. This book is great!” Michael Connelly
Thirteen Hours has breathtaking suspense, psychological understanding, and one of the most inspiring detectives ever. Deon Meyer deserves his international reputation.”Thomas Perry
A smashing story. Imposing a strict time limit and a tight location on his plot, [Meyer] ramps up the suspense to an unbearable degree. Best of all, his sharply drawn characters really feel part of the new South Africa, where loyalties and beliefs must always be questioned.”Financial Times
A vividly drawn locale where political considerations affect everything, cliff-hanging suspense, and shocking plot twists, Meyer again has produced a winner. Highly recommended.” Roland Person, Library Journal (starred review)
Try picking up Thirteen Hours and setting it down. Try. You can't do it. I'm a pro, and I couldn't do it.'” Don Winslow, author of The Power of the Dog and Savages
There have been other South African crime novelists, but none are as deft at place as Deon Meyer. Thirteen Hours is Cape Town today, with all its exquisite beauty, tribal conflicts, loyalties and corruptions. Meyer weaves all this into a tightly plotted story with a twist that works beautifully and unforgettable characters.Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
A gem of a protagonist [a] wonderfully realized book. Deon Meyer continues to be one of the most underappreciated writers in the genre, especially in the U.S., but if he keeps turning out books like Thirteen Hours, I can’t see that situation continuing for long. This is my favorite novel of the year so far.” George Easter, Deadly Pleasures
Thirteen hours in the life of South African police Detective Inspector Benny Griessel make Jack Bauer's exploits look like child's play. [Thirteen Hours] progresses at breakneck speed.” Maxine Clark, Euro Crime
Terrific.” Hubert O'Hearn, ByTheBookReviews.blogspot.com
Twenty years after the release of Nelson Mandela, South Africa remains a troubled place, and Meyer’s novels give rare insights into the texture of everyday life. Above all, though, [Thirteen Hours] is a vigorous, exciting novel that combines memorable characters and plot with edge-of-the-seat suspense.”Joan Smith, The Sunday Times (UK)
The staccato story slips back and forth between the various strands at a breathless clip, doling out nuggets of plot in just the right amounts to have us salivating to know more.”
Ben Felsenburg, Metro (UK)
[Thirteen Hours] is gripping, tense, cleverly plotted and beautifully balanced between action, investigation and social comment. And all of it rises towards a crescendo that is pitched to perfection.” Material Witness (UK)
In Meyer we have more than a writer who entertains, and also more than a novelist who educates us about 'little cultural differences': his greatest attribute is that he sets us thinking about ourselves and our country and our future. Painlessly.”James Mitchell, The South African Star
[Meyer’s] novels are so engaging that you can easily get paper cuts from turning pages too fast. . . . Thirteen Hours is a ripping good read guaranteed to keep you up until the last word.” Yolandi Groenewald, Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
Thirteen Hours once again proves that Meyer is in a class of his own.”
Suzaan Hauman, LitNet (South Africa)
The message is simple: Thirteen Hours is available, it does not matter how much it costs, just go buy it. . . . You can’t read his books fast enough.”
Beeld (South Africa)
Blistering the fugitive girl's desperate flight, and Benny's equally frantic efforts to save her, deliver a heart-pumping yarn in an exotic locale.” John Sullivan, Winnipeg Free Press
Meyer brilliantly juggles all of the thematic balls, while maintaining an unrelenting sense of suspense. We do not know till the end who is after Rachel and why they want to kill her. We do not even know if she is implicated in some crime or wholly innocent. What we do know is that we want her to get away.” Yvonne Klein, Reviewing the Evidence
Product details
- Publisher : Grove Press (September 6, 2011)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 560 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0802145450
- ISBN-13 : 978-0802145451
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.2 x 1.5 x 6.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #150,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,675 in Murder Thrillers
- #9,765 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #13,776 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Deon Meyer is a South African crime fiction author and screenwriter.
A former journalist, advertising copywriter, Internet manager and brand strategist, Deon has published thirteen novels and two short story collections. His books have been published in 28 languages in more than 40 countries world-wide.
He has also written several series for television, and four screenplays for feature films. Deon has also produced and directed movies in his native Afrikaans.
Accolades for his books include Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (2003) and Le prix Mystère de la critique (2004) from France, the Deutsche Krimi Preis (2006, 2009), the Swedish Martin Beck Award (2010), the ATKV Prose Prize (2000, 2003, and 2004), the ATKV Suspense Fiction Prize (2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2019), the M-Net Award for Most Filmic Novel (2009, 2012), and the Barry Award for Best Thriller in the USA (2010).
Deon was born in Paarl in 1958 and matriculated in Klerksdorp in 1976. He studied at the Universities of Northwest, Free State and Stellenbosch, and holds a Masters’ Degree in Creative Writing.
He lives in Stellenbosch with his wife Marianne, and is passionate about South Africa, Mozart, mountain biking, cooking, photography, and Free State Cheetahs and Springbok rugby.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Meyer wrote both books by constantly changing from one set of circumstances with different players to next; you assume they all merge at some point. I'm not a fan of that approach and found in this book the story line difficult to track at times because of that. Also, like several other reviewers, I found this book to drag in several places; so, I; too, skipped paragraphs and felt I missed nothing. Overall, I thought the book was too long because some of the writing seemed to be page filler and/or some of the dialogue read like a script in a play .. every comment over a causal dinner for example which added nothing.
Some reviewers said they were disappointed because they couldn't connect with "the place"/the Cape Town setting. I found it was educational and, positively, different.
Per the situation of the main character (Benny Griessel), this book builds off of events in Devil's Peak and references key events in that book; that's fine here. However per the above, it definitely detracts from some of the suspense in Devil's Peak if read out of order as I did.
Per my rating: Meyer developed a decent storyline (hence the three rating and not a lower one per the above) and it was "different". Still, there was too much in the "same song, fifth verse" sense of things. And, some scenarios were totally unrealistic . For example, a young woman tourist (who is a target for ruthless killers and the police trying to save her) constantly evades all of them in a place she doesn't know when she was only on foot and in thin running clothes, needs water and food, most often only by hiding in different sets of bushes each time .. over and over and over again.
Net-net: Devil's Peak was FAR better .. try that one, if none other, and read it first.
Captain Benny Grissel of the South African Police Service (SAPS) is having a murderous day. A mogul in the Afrikaans music industry has been shot dead. An American girl on an adventure tour has had her throat slit. And her killers are after another American girl, a friend on the tour with her. Media and political interest in these cases is high.
Benny, whom we know from other Deon Meyer novels, is under terrific pressure to resolve these cases and find the missing American girl. Meanwhile he's struggling to stay sober and win back his wife. And Benny is only in charge of these cases as an advisor. A middle-aged leftover from the old South Africa, Benny in the New South Africa is a mentor to six new detectives. Most of the veteran Afrikaans cops have been reassigned. The new black and colored detectives are keen but green. It's Benny's job to help them learn and make sure they solve their cases.
Benny and the reader get deeply interested in these young recruits: Mbali, the fat, bossy Zulu woman cop with a sharp tongue and an even sharper intellect; Vusi, the soft-spoken Xhosa cop whose main problem is being too polite; and Dekker, the colored cop who's too attractive to women for his own good.
The racial politics in SAPS are fascinating. The interrogations of suspects are riveting. The final confrontation between Benny and the criminals is a threat to one's blood pressure.
13 Hours is a terrific thriller. Even though it has characters from other books, the plot is so strong, it can be read as a stand-alone.
It starts at a breakneck pace and does not let up for a second. This is not the kind of book you read for gentle bed-time relaxation, this is the kind of book you read on a long-haul flight where you have around 12 hours of uninterrupted reading time. Or when you have a rainy day with nothing else to do. Do not read this book if you have a weak heart, or are prone to anxiety.
My only criticism (and it is really a very small one) is that the reveal at the end: it is the slightest of anti-climaxes - I cannot say much more without spoiling it. And some of the more minor characters do not get the attention at the end that they deserve.
For instance, Mbali Kaleni is a triumph of a character - after I had read the book I felt as if I wanted to contact her personally and thank her for a job well done. She almost deserves a book of her own.
And that is Meyer's brilliance - his characters are sketched with genius, from the main to the minor, they come across as complex, many-faceted people. And the fact that Meyer uses South Africans from every racial and demographic group as his characters gives the reader insight into this complicated country and the people that make it work.
I cannot praise this book enough. It is a must-read for every South African. And if you are not South African, it makes you want to become one!
Top reviews from other countries

Benny Griessel is a veteran of the South African Police, reborn post-apartheid as the more politically correct South African Police Service. In this book, he is promoted and assigned to "mentor" up and coming black and colored detectives. He immediately ends up covering two cases and as his superiors become increasingly concerned about their political and PR ramifications his role moves from advisor to officer in charge. The first involves two American backpackers fleeing for their lives from a ruthless, well-organized and well-connected gang. The other involves the murder of a record company executive and the attempted framing of his alcoholic wife. Meyer shifts the close-to-real-time narrative back and forth between the cases at approximately two-page intervals, building up a sort of "24" sense of suspense.
Meyer is strong on characterization. Both his minor and major characters are three-dimensional. Griessel is well developed and despite being burdened with the overworked baggage of the fictional cop - alcohol issues, collapsing marriage, difficulties with authority, and a bathetic effort to connect with his long distance, grown up daughter - has a special individuality. One of the missing girls' parents speaks with him on the phone from Indiana and immediately knows he can trust him. This is not simply a matter of integrity but of commitment and competence. Griessel believes in what he is doing and what he is going to do and the reader believes in him.
Meyer's writing reminded me of Peter Temple's Australian novels. The style is less spare and the plotting less complex, but the characterization and the worldview are similar, and there is the same buildup of narrative tension. The two authors also achieve an appealing blend of familiarity and differentness in their Australian and South African settings.
Meyer's backdrop of the new South Africa is a special feature of this book. The SAPS is trying to find itself in the new world; elderly whites make a brave fist of seeing the best in the transition; Xhosas fear a purge as Zulus move into ascendancy with the succession of Jacob Zuma; coloreds find that they are just as stuck in the middle under the black regime as they were under apartheid and that it is up to them to come to terms with it; there is the ever present tension of sexual attraction across racial divides; and insecure people of all stripes take comfort in the protective dumbness of sullen bureaucracy. Somehow, though, despite his novel's setting in the under-belly of society, Meyer communicates a sense of optimism and excitement about his country. Thirteen Hours is gripping for sure, but it is also uplifting.

into English from Afrikaans,is an exhilarating read,and
shows him to be one of the best and most exciting of
crime writers.
As the title suggests,the story takes place within a
period of 13 hours.The engaging Detective Benny Griessel
is down on his luck.He is an alcoholic,struggling to stay
off the booze,his wife has left him,and he is uncertain
of his role and place within the new South African Police
Service.He is asked to mentor up and coming detective
inspectors,when two crimes occur.An American backpacker
is murdered,and her female companion is on the run from
the killers,and elsewhere a music executive is found shot
dead in his home.The former crime becomes a diplomatic
incident as Griessel has to save the young woman.
Amidst the unrelenting suspense,Meyer portrays some
interesting characters,and gives us a view of some of the
problems in South Africa.--A riveting ,well-plotted and
throughly enjoyable novel.

I was inexorably drawn into the complex, brutal and compelling narrative. Having lived in Cape Town, the amazing detail of "place" in this novel gives it real authenticity. Meyer also really "gets" the new South Africa and revealingly explores the contemporary issues of racism and gender politics without sentiment. The denouement is as gritty as reservoir dogs, with a great "touch".
Absolute cracker. He is as good as they say.

Content - Quite liked the first 100 pages as the chase hooked me in but I gradually lost interest as it became just another thriller with mixed up police characters. I may have missed it but the reason for the girls being chased never turned up ... or did it? I did wonder whether I had found another series of books to read. I may try another but I am not in a rush.
Alexander of the Allrighters and Ywnwab!

The suspense is kept up all the way and it's inevitable that there is a happy ending. The sudden uncovering of the whole plot of the very end is a bit rushed, but the 13 hours were up!