Deon Meyer's 'pulsating and gripping' BLOOD SAFARI has been optioned for film by TFI International, producers of La Vie en Rose and Female Agents, with a view to developing and producing an English language theatrical release film. The deal was brokered by Conrad Williams at Blake Friedmann.

Described as 'the King of South African crime', Deon Meyer's novels, originally written in Afrikaans, are sold in 21 countries. He has been awarded many prizes around the world, including major crime fiction awards in France and Germany. BLOOD SAFARI won the 2009 Deutsche Krimi Preis, and is a stunning standalone thriller featuring a freelance bodyguard, a woman in danger, ruthless wildlife poachers and dark secrets from the past. BLOOD SAFARI is published by Hodder in the UK, Grove Atlantic in the US, Random in Canada, Le Seuil in France, Aufbau in Germany, Tiden Norsk in Norway and Centerpolygraph in Russia.  Film rights in several other titles are also sold.

Deon Meyer will be part of the group of South African writers invited to attend the London Book Fair in April, as part of the Market Focus on South Africa. For more news on his events and festivals around the world in 2010 see here.

'With Deon Meyer you can't go wrong.'  

--Michael Connelly

'I've been reading a new book by Deon Meyer, a South African, writer of crime fiction, set in his homeland. I love crime fiction and I'm always on the lookout for a new talent and Mr Meyer certainly fits the bill.'           

--Michael Parkinson, from his website

'In his native South Africa…Meyer is a bigger hitter than his namesake Twilight author…His books regularly slay the vampire romances in the charts, with their gritty realisations of the seamier side of South African life.'      

--Catherine Neilan, The Bookseller

'Deon Meyer, the godfather of local crime fiction, is a warm-hearted writer who takes on broad moral issues: vigilantes in DEVIL'S PEAK and the spectres of our military past in BLOOD SAFARI. His heroes are cops, PIs and ex-soldiers and he writes in the best crime tradition of the flawed hero who might not do the legal thing but who always does the right thing.'           

--Margie Orford