RITOUS ASSEMBLY

When Miss Hazelstone of Jacaranda Park kills her Zulu cook in a sensational crime passionel, the gallant members of the South African police force are soon upon the scene: Kommandant van Heerden, whose secret longing for the heart of an English gentleman leads to the most memorable transplant operation yet recorded; Luitenant Verkramp of the Security Branch, ever active iin the pursuit of Communist cells; Konstabel Els, with his propensity for shooting first and not thinking later - and also for forcing himself upon African women in a manner legally reserved for male members of their own race. In the course of the strange events which follow, we encounter some very esoteric perversions when the Kommandant is held captive in Miss Hazelstone''s remarkable rubber room; and some even more amazing perversions of justice when Miss Hazelstone''s brother, the Bishop of Barotseland, is sentenced to be hanged on the ancient gallows in the local prison. Not a ''political'' novel in any previously imagined sense, Riotous Assembly provides a completely fresh approach to the South African scene - an approach at once startling in its deadpan savagery and outrageously funny.