South African crime/thriller novelist
Deon Godfrey Meyer is a South African thriller novelist, writing primarily in Afrikaans. His works have been translated into 28 languages. He has also written numerous scripts for television and film.
Deon Meyer was born in Paarl, South Africa.[citation needed]
He matriculated in at the Schoonspruit High School in Klerksdorp. He then attended Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, where he gained a BA with English and History as majors. He later obtained an honours degree at the University of the Free State.[citation needed]
In the s he worked as a journalist at Die Volksblad, at the public relations office of the University of the Free State, and began work as advertising copy writer at Sanlam.[citation needed] In he was appointed manager of Internal Communication and creative director of Sanlam's publicity department.[citation needed]
After leaving Sanlam, he started his own business specialising in the creation and management of virtual communities on the internet.[citation needed] He then worked as manager of special projects at BMW motorcycles.
He currently[when?] writes full-time.[1][needs update]
Meyer was a long-time resident of historical coastal resort of Melkbosstrand, where he wrote most of his novels.[citation needed]
His hobbies include touring Southern Africa on a motorcycle.[2]
Deon Meyer's novel-writing career started when the Afrikaans magazine, Huisgenoot, published a short story he had submitted.[3] Since then, he has written fifteen novels and two short story collections. His novels reflect current social issues in South Africa,[4][5] including that of the apartheid system.[6] His main characters are flawed but empathetic cops.[7]
Feniks (Dead Before Dying) was the first novel for which film rights were awarded. The screenplay, written by South African writer Johann Potgieter, was finalised in but was never made into a motion picture. It was adapted again in by German TV-producer Annette Reeker as Cape Town, an international co-produced TV-series.
Transito was specially written for television and aired in
The novel Orion (Dead at Daybreak) was dramatised for television.
In August the film rights for 13 Uur (Thirteen Hours) were awarded to British producers Malcolm Kohll and Robert Fig. Roger Spottiswoode was appointed to direct the film.
The film rights for Proteus (Heart of the Hunter) were granted to a South African company. Heart of the Hunter was subsequently released in
The South African TV series Trackers is based on Meyer's novel of the same name. It premiered in the US on June 5,
Devil's Peak, the first Benny Griessel novel, was adapted in as a five episode TV series for M-Net, with Hilton Pelser starring as Griessel.[8]
Meyer’s novels have been nominated for and have won numerous awards.[9]
Blood Safari won the inaugural ATKV Prize for Best Suspense Fiction in It also received the German Krimi Award (third place) in
Dead at Daybreak won the French Prix Mystère de la critique It was awarded best television script for a South African series by the Afrikaanse Taal en Kultuurvereniging in and won the ATKV Prose Prize in It was shortlisted for the Swedish Martin Beck Award for best translated crime fiction in , the M-Net Book Prize, and the Sunday Times Literary Prize.
Dead before Dying (French title Jusqu'au Dernier) won Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière
Devil’s Peak won the Martin Beck Award ("Den gyllene kofoten" or The golden crowbar) by the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers in It also won ATKV Prose Prize for and the Readers' Award from for Best Crime Novel or Thriller in
Heart of the Hunter (Afrikaans title Proteus) won the ATKV Prose Prize in and the Deutscher Krimi Preis in
13 Hours won the ATKV Prize for Best Suspense Fiction in and the Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (Exclusive Books Fanatics choice) in
Seven Days (Afrikaans title 7 Dae) won the M-Net Literary Award (Film category) in [10]