Coldsleep lullaby is a novel set in Stellenbosch. The narrative alternates between two stories, three hundred years apart. The modern story is a police thriller, focusing on Inspector Eberard Februarie, a coloured police officer investigating the murder of a young student, Melanie du Preez. Evidence points to a Burundian who works at a nightclub. But all is not as it seems, and Inspector Februarie, who has a dark past himself, uncovers unexpected bizarre secrets about the case. The second story takes place in the early days of Stellenbosch, in the seventeenth century, and concerns a cruel viticulturist, Martin van der Keesel, and his relationship with his slaves. He develops a dark passion for a certain slave girl, and as the novel progresses, this narrative forms a sort of fugue with the modern one. As the stories move towards their climactic endings, they are brought together with startling skill.
