The Mashego File

Written by Ian Patrick

Narrated by Nozuko Mapoma

Detectives at war with vicious criminals. Assassinations. Vigilante justice. Heroism. Another gripping crime thriller and police procedural based on the author’s personal experience of brutal crime. Written on the basis of front-line research in the company of detectives, victims, and forensic specialists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Patrick
• Release date: Apr 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781509492602

Ian Patrick

Ian Thomas Patrick was born on May 3, 1924, in Dennistoun, Glasgow. His father was a senior member of staff in the Glasgow Corporation Rates Department. Before his parents were married, his mother also worked there. When Ian was four, the family bought a semidetached house in Kelvindale, a new estate in the west end of Glasgow. He and his younger sister attended Hillhead High School until war broke out in 1939, when they both became evacuees. Ian was resident in the hostel attached to Dumfries Academy. He spent two happy years there obtaining his Higher Leaving Certificate in 1941. He spent his sixth year back in Hillhead, then entered Glasgow University Medical School, graduating in 1948. His parents were churchgoers; Ian became a Sunday school teacher in his local church, Westbourne Church of Scotland. His call to the mission field developed over his student years. Two of his close undergraduate friends had grown up as children of medical missionaries, one in China and the other in Africa. He read several books about missionary lives. During his final year as an undergraduate, he volunteered to the Church of Scotland. He had felt attracted to China, but the communists were spreading throughout the country, and Christian missions were sending home overseas staff. India seemed more possible. However, the only vacancy was in the Punjab. Partition occurred in 1947, so a more experienced candidate was needed. However, the Church of Scotland referred him to the Presbyterian Church of England. After graduation, Dr. Patrick’s first job was to spend six months as house surgeon in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. He applied during this time and was interviewed and accepted to serve in Rajshahi, the third-largest city in the new state of East Pakistan. He was making plans for further posts to gain experience, but the mission board instead arranged for him to spend his first year training in the Welsh Mission Hospital in Shillong, the capital of the hill state of Assam in India, under a very experienced missionary, Arthur Hughes. After the first year, which included a three-month Bengali language study course in Darjeeling, he began work in September 1949 in Rajshahi, supervising the conversion of a former student hostel into a hospital.

Reviews for The Mashego File

[Susan Ndebele · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was intending to read the third book in this series but I mis-understood a friend and got this one instead. I'll get to the third book later, but in the meantime this was fascinating. I listened to the audio version. I liked the book very much but the narration was not the best. The story is thrilling and very well crafted, and the characters are wonderful. Maybe it needed a man's voice? I don't know. The main thing is Mashego. He's the kind of detective we need, in thousands. He is a brilliantly conceived character and I'd follow him anywhere. This was a good book.

[Erica Koekemoer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book, even though I had reservations about the narration. I saw from other comments that people think the narrator is not experienced enough, and I would agree. Nevertheless, I thought the writing itself was stupendous. The action is thrillingly created and the whole thing is such a good reflection of things that are happening now in South Africa that I could forgive the narrator's few moments of inexperience. She does do the accents well, I'll give her that. But most of all this character Mashego is magnificent. I wish we had more policemen like him around. A most enjoyable book.

[Nhlanhla Dube · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book when I read it. Outstanding. But the narration is disappointing. Not as good as the book, as others have said. Still, the book is great and is so real, if anyone knows what it's like in that region where the action takes place.

[Bruian Bradford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book is superb. I read it a while back. The audio is also good but not as good as the book. On the plus side the mother-tongue speaker reading the book does the accents and vernacular words very well. But she's not that experienced, I assume, as a reader. But she certainly nails the emotional bits. There's a lot to praise. The plot and characters and the writing are top drawer.