-- Reviews by the Famous and well Known
I like this one despite its graphic, explicit detail and colourful dialogue. However, one is warned of this. Anyway, it adds backbone to the story, which is set in 1970's apartheid South Africa. So, you would expect a gritty dialogue, a gritty story and a high tempo plot masterly put together, telling a dark tale that centres around affluent white farmers and the poor suppressed black farm hands, stroke servants. Also, not forgetting corrupt officials lining their back pockets. Lost Chances is a daring book, which highlights the trade in young black girls for sex and, of course, drugs. It’s an insight into what was allowed to flow over many heads and bury them in the sand. Mind you, what is so different now? The problems of South Africa, highlighted in this book, have moved on to the places that once condemned, unacceptable by the onlookers from the west. Fascinating how things have changed. For this reason I’m sure this book will stand the test of time and its issues will last forever. Gilbert Lamusse has created strong characters who communicate a strong thriller and a message: ‘Is it worth it’. I was expecting a violent conclusion, like a last stance at ‘the okay coral’, which didn’t happen. Instead, to my pleasant surprise, the story ended with a soft tasteful dignity towards a sad loss of opportunity. Or, Lost chances. It is, however, worth your time to read it and relate to the present time. Recommended.
Mark S. Bennison, Author of 'Military Rule'
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Straight to the point!
Sheila Woods, Author of 'Maud's Stone'
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-- Newspaper and Website Reviews
“It could be risky, Sonja. Watch your back carefully.”
On Grootsprit farm 64 kilometres north-east of Queenstown, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, the black foreman Ou Hendricks jabbers in Xhosa language, “Ma’am, ma’am, pleeze com kwik. Someding baad, baad, baad ‘appen to baas Andries.”
Lost Chances if filled with more twists and turns than tracks across the Serengeti.
Andries du Plessis is murdered on his property and the black kitchen-boy Moses is arrested by Captain Gerrit Biljeon. Geraldine du Plessis, the shapely wife of Andries, has formed an alliance with Dirk Coetzee a wealthy land lord with more than one group of Afrikaners working for him.
Senior medical surgeon at St. Ann’s, the Roman Catholic mission hospital, Father Tom Dooley is in charge of the Afrikaners Dr. Matt Ngwenya, and Miriam Melamu, a beautiful and politically motivated nurse. Sister Mary O’Malley from Ireland, a nun and radiologist at the hospital, is torn between two worlds. All must make hard choices.
When journalist Sonja Vermeulen is called to Grootsprit to unearth information on drugs and sex trafficking, lives are placed on the line. Private Investigator Kieran Kilcade flies to South Africa to help track down those behind the murders.
The heat is turned up on an already sweltering story when documents fall into corrupt hands. The author, Gilbert Lamusse has created a story of intrigue where cultures and worlds entwine.
Lost Chances has an ending that is totally unexpected!
www.rollingseas.com.au
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Lost Chances is a fascinating book. The author captures well the grim, self-destructive ambience of 1970s South Africa as well as the strictly enforced (if often unwritten) social code of the day.
Lost Chances has it all; steamy sexual encounters, murder, intrigue – even the odd expletive. And yet the book isn’t salacious. The sex illustrates the power, the violence the unjust authority, the expletives the frustration of life in those times. Lamusse takes the reader through a veritable supermarket of subtle but powerful metaphors.
The author’s style is intriguing. At first, his penchant for the present tense irritated me, but after the first few pages it grows on you and works for Lamusse’s style. Writing in the present the way Lamusse does carries the reader along with him instead of leaving the reader behind.
Lamusse has a way of scene-setting that is quite unique. When he talks about the Bitterfontein Farm you can smell the heat, hear the wind. And, all the while, you don’t have to struggle to keep track of the principle characters.
Lost Chances has a multitude of endings, none of them predictable. On one page Lamusse has the hero Tom Dooley pleading with Sonja the journalist, "I do love you, Sonja, but perhaps we shouldn’t rush into anything.” From this almost Cartlandesque scene of civility and propriety the author can whisk the reader into a volcano of raw emotion and passion. In my experience few writers can do this successfully, or without making their book seem disjointed.
Lamusse is a very unorthodox novelist but a good one. Lost Chances is graphic, but for those who like a novel that scratches beneath the surface then this is it. I hope he has another tale under his belt. If not then there’s going to be a good few disappointed people around.
Mike Hallowell, The Shields Gazette
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Gilbert Lamusse was born in the pleasantly - named town of Rose Hill, Mauritius in 1935.
Almost from the time he left his mother’s womb he seems to have been destined to lead a colourful and intriguingly unorthodox life.
After gaining a government-sponsored scholarship Gilbert – who was raised a Catholic -studied philosophy at the Gregorian University of Rome, moved on to study Theology at Strasbourg and was eventually ordained as a priest.
Gilbert‘s first posting was not an easy one. He was sent to the Gilbert & Ellis Islands as a missionary. He was actually elected as a representative of one of the islands of the Gilbert Island group to the first legislative assembly; the first move by the British government in granting independence to the Gilbert Islands, or as they are now called, Kiribati.
Gilbert’s stint in the Pacific was short-lived. He was stricken with dysentery and became very sick. His illness, coupled with burgeoning questions about his faith, gave him both the time and inclination to reflect on where he really wanted to go in life.
In the short-term he continued his education at Rhodes University, then went on to study law before taking a series of posts in the insurance industry in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Botswana and elsewhere.
Gilbert’s wife Fran is, in fact, Rhodesian and one senses that she has played more than a minor role in moulding Gilbert’s success in becoming a writer.
Which brings me to Portsmouth, for it is here that Gilbert Lamusse has – when other folk would be retiring gracefully to the potting shed – set down his roots and written a stark yet fascinating novel.
Lost Chances is an intriguing book. Gilbert revisits the depressing era of 1970s South Africa and the sense of hopelessness which ordinary people felt back then is almost palpable.
The setting should give the reader the first clue that Lost Chances is no sedate love story filled with rose-covered cottages and crinoline dresses. The book is powerful, pulls no punches and refuses to gloss over even the most minor of social injustices.
Gilbert talks like a gentleman, which he is; polite, courteous and self-effacing. He also lives in Portsmouth, which is hardly a hotbed of anarchy.
So why, in the twilight years of a long and adventurous life, should he have a literary rush of blood to the head and write such a caffeine-filled novel with more than its fair share of murder, intrigue and sex?
The answer is not buried deep underneath the surface. Gilbert has lived, studied and worked in South Africa. He is a man with a conscience, but he may wrestle with it from time-to-time and I can’t help but feel that the powerful forces vying for attention in his novel are mirroring things he has witnessed over decades of globe-trotting.
The parallels between Portsmouth and Mauritius are fascinating. Gilbert loves Pompey.
“I like Portsmouth because it is Nelson’s city, and even as a child the character of Nelson fascinated me.
“I also like it because of the climate and its proximity to the sea. I lived by the sea as a child, you see…”
Lost Chances focuses on St. Ann’s Mission Hospital situated in the dreamy, sun-drenched Eastern Cape. Murders, disappearances, political corruption and exploitation are the order of the day.
Slowly but inexorably the staff there get dragged into a seedy, violent underworld where the perpetrators of the crimes could be lurking – quite literally – just around the corner.
Add to this heady mix a Vietnam War veteran (now a Catholic priest) and a sultry journalist with nerves of steel and Lost Chances stops the pretence of being a simmering novel and just boils right over.
Here Gilbert reveals another reason he loves Portsmouth.
“The city is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan and I like that. It’s enriching, you know.”
It’s hard not to see something of a younger Gilbert Lamusse in the hero of his novel, the priest Tom Dooley. Dooley, along with journalist Sonja Vermeulen, is trying to right wrongs. I think Gilbert’s social conscience is speaking through Dooley, but I could be wrong.
What I do think is that it would be hard to imagine Gilbert writing Lost Chances anywhere else but Portsmouth. The city has taken Gilbert Lamusse back to his youth, renewed his vigour. Good for Pompey, I say.
I’m actually quite jealous. Being a Geordie lad born on the banks of the Tyne I’d love to have seen Gilbert make his literary mark on the world in Newcastle. Well, some you win, some you lose. Pompey got him first, and you should be glad. Gilbert Lamusse is a very good writer indeed.
Apex Publishing has kindly donated two copies of Lost Chances signed by the author. To win a copy simply e-mail your answer to the following question to bookcomp@mail2bookmark.com.
The population of South Africa is a) 22 million, b) 33 million, or c) 44 million.
The first two entrants with the correct answers will receive a free, signed copy of Gilbert Lamusse’s Lost Chances.
Lost Chances by Gilbert Lamusse is published by Apex Publishing Ltd (ISBN 1-904444-46-6) and priced at £7.99
The Portsmouth & District Post
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LOST CHANCES
Christian Market Place Magazine
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Lost Chances - Gilbert Lamusse
Apex Publishing Ltd £7.99
Set in apartheid-torn South Africa in the 1970s, this novel draws you in to the dangerous, violent and unpredictable world of the Black/White divide. This story is centred around St Ann's mission hospital and its staff, who are drawn into the underworld of disappearing black girls sold for sex, brutal rapes, murders and corruption. The language used can be quite coarse and even offensive at times, but this reflects the attitudes of the white population during this time. Fast paced and easily devoured in one sitting.
Shop! Scotland Magazine
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-- Readers Comments
An unusual style of writing, I found this book read more like a narrative from a play. Having lived in this part of the world I was able to relate to some of the characters and environment. To enjoy the pace and directness of the prose the reader needs to stay focused as the various strands of the ‘plot’ come together. The book also deals with many emotive issues which could provoke strong responses from its readers. A challenging book on many levels. For me worth a read.
Catherine Cousins
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