More than just a murder

From the start, Grave Murder sets the scene for a graphic and harrowing telling of the brutal murder of Michael van Eck by Chané van Heerden and Maartens van der Merwe.

It also offers a description of the trials which saw them both found guilty, separately, and sentenced to prison for Michael’s murder and the mutilation of his corpse.

In April 2011, the sleepy town of Welkom was rocked to its core when these two brutally killed, decapitated and mutilated Michael before burying him in a shallow grave at the edge of the local cemetery.

Within hours of the act, cemetery personnel had discovered blood and notified the authorities.

This led to the police finding the perpetrators fairly quickly and apprehending both of them with very little fuss.

When the police approached the two, within days of the murder, neither denied their actions and led the police to most of the body parts which had been missing when the police excavated his grave in the cemetery.

Chané had kept his head, while Maartens had buried the right foot and left arm in their yard.

The book gallops along at a great pace, telling a riveting story until page 79 when the reader is bombarded by texts quoted verbatim for the next 40 pages.

The story loses momentum at this stage and the book become tedious to wade through.

However, if you can wade (or skip as I did) to page 111 the story is once again taken up by this first-time author and becomes quite captivating once more.

The wasted pages could, however, have been left out and more detail about the trial should have been given since this is where things get very interesting.

The author, however, chooses to leave much of the “juicy” stuff out.

It is an interesting read but could have had far greater impact written by a more seasoned writer with a better understanding of tempo, timing and which details should be given and which left out.

Had I not followed the case when it was at trial, and known most of what was public record, I would have abandoned this book for lack of trial details, especially considering Chané’s unusual sentence which stipulates that after spending 20 years in prison she will have to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

She will then appear in court again and it will be the court’s decision whether she is returned to prison or released.