 In June 2005, Fred van der Vyver, a young actuary and the son of a wealthy Eastern Cape farming family, was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Inge Lotz, allegedly bludgeoning her to death with a hammer as she lay on a couch in her lounge.
The case against Van der Vyver seemed overwhelming. His behaviour at the time of the murder appeared suspicious and incriminating, and a letter, penned by Inge on the morning of her death, suggested that the two had been fighting. But it was forensic evidence that seemed to prove his guilt: his fingerprints were found at the scene, one of his shoes was matched to a blood stain on the bathroom floor, and traces of blood were found on an ornamental hammer that had been given to him by the victim’s parents.
And yet, in one of the most sensational and controversial murder trials in South African legal history, Van der Vyver’s lawyers sought to turn the tables on the police, accusing them of fabricating evidence and lying to the judge. In Fruit of a Poisoned Tree, prize-winning author Antony Altbeker takes you into the heat of this epic courtroom battle. Altbeker’s eye-witness account of the trial presents the reader with all the evidence and testimony of the trial, while also placing it in the context of a society and a justice system that are being stretched to breaking point.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fruit of a Poisoned Tree is Antony Altbeker’s third book about crime and justice in South Africa. His first, The Dirty Work of Democracy, won the Recht Malan prize for non-fiction and was short-listed for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. His second, A Country at War with Itself, is widely regarded as the most authoritative popular account of the causes of South Africa’s crime problem and of what to do to fix it.
ADVANCE PRAISE
‘Fruit of a Poisoned Tree is an important contribution to understanding the textures and dynamics of important aspects of South African culture, as well as of the machinations of the criminal justice system. Altbeker excels in his relentless and meticulous re-arguing of the Lotz murder case, painstakingly picking through evidence and testimonies, like a latter-day Sherlock Holmes, and bringing into play not only an astute judgement of facts and character, but also offering a compelling analysis of the degeneration of the investigative prowess of South Africa’s law enforcers. It is a chilling revelation of the rotten state of the administrative capacity and of the professional bankruptcy of policing in South Africa. This is obligatory reading for those interested in the current state of the nation. It reads like a thriller and is utterly unputdownable. It leaves the reader with serious food for thought. It almost convinces one that fiction has become redundant in this country.’
MARLENE VAN NIEKERK, author of Agaat and Triomf
‘Altbeker’s account of the Inge Lotz murder trial is both shocking and riveting. It is also beautifully written.’
PETER HARRIS, author of In a Different Time
‘It’s a legal thriller, a murder mystery, a social commentary, a bit of history and a travelogue of the most sensational court case of the past decade. It is exhaustively researched, beautifully written, totally mesmerising and absolutely riveting. My wife is reading it now – I’ll have to fix my own dinner for the next few nights.’
DEON MEYER, author of Blood Safari and Thirteen Hours
‘South African literature has not seen true crime of this standard for a very long time. Antony Altbeker has married an expert's knowledge of the criminal justice system with a storyteller's flair for narrative and suspense. The result is a book that provides rare insight into the often compromised nature of our courts, yet reads like a high-voltage thriller. If you thought you knew something about the Inge Lotz murder trial, Altbeker has come, like a master decoder, to disabuse you of that notion.’
KEVIN BLOOM, journalist, editor and author of Ways of Staying
May 2010 | R195.00 | 9781868423330 | Trade Paperback | Jonathan Ball Publishers | Non‐fiction | 438 pages |
