They were blood brothers.
One, a Coloured drifter, now prisoner 83143118 on Pretoria's Death Row, was known as the Fantasy Killer at the time of his trial because, although he claimed to have murdered up to fifty people, there was only evidence for one and a half.
The other is the 'half that got away: Adrian, a young white tourist guide who, four years earlier, picked up the drifter for a bout of casual sex, and only just survived a murderous attack.
Now taking depleted groups of British, Australian and Israeli tourists around South Africa in the explosive months before Mandela's release, Adrian starts writing to prisoner 83143118, determined to find out why the murderer never finished the job.
Competing in a chilling race against time - prisoner 83143118's notice of execution can be served at any time and locked in another intimate yet deadly encounter, the two men explore the magnetic relationship of killer and victim, as well as their separate worlds: the vast, spectacular landscapes of tourist South Africa, and the cramped, nightmarish spaces of Death Row, known as Beverly Hills, populated by the stars of South Africa's violent recent past - the assassins, freedom fighters and neo-Nazis.
A murderous love story, CHEAP LIVES brilliantly contrasts the two correspondents' experiences of a divided country as it stumbles towards democracy. Fast-paced and darkly compelling, this is a novel of exceptional power, by turns shocking, funny and moving.
Hard cover

Condition: Good