At the moment I’m reading…

The Believers by Zoe Heller and The Girl with the Crooked Nose by Ted Botha.

Which writers do you admire and why?

I admire anyone who can crank out a readable manuscript and deal with the gauntlet of rejections which are part of the process of getting published. It takes guts, determination and a thick skin. I’m also in awe of writers who bravely and tirelessly challenge ingrained South African societal misconceptions about rape, HIV and violence – such as Sindiwe Magona and Helen Moffett.

What or who, inspired you to write this book?

Exhibit A is inspired by true events. A close friend of mine was raped in a police cell a few years ago, and the resulting botched investigation and thinly-veiled cover-up was almost unbelievable. Although the novel veers from the actual events (the real case is still trudging through the courts), it was a story that cried out to be written. Writing it was a form of revenge in a sense. My main characters – two renegade lawyers – are based on actual legal practitioners who battle daily to get justice for their clients, many of whom have been let down by the system. The story behind the dog in the novel, a scruffy pavement special with an interesting past, is absolutely true.

My earliest memory…

Dropping my teddy bear out of my pushchair in a shopping centre and being paralysed with fear that I wouldn’t see him again. A woman returned him, and in my memory she does this with a Michael Bay heroic soundtrack, surrounded by a halo of light. I still have ‘Teddy’, although he’s looking a bit like a living-dead bear these days.

What would you say is the most challenging part of writing?

Getting that first bit of feedback. My husband, daughter and trusted close friends act as my crap radar – they get to see the manuscript when it’s a shaky newborn and read it first. They tell me immediately if I’m on the right track. I’m a mess until I get the thumbs-up from them.

What was the most enjoyable aspect of writing this book?

I loved the whole process, even the editing!

My favourite guilty pleasure…

I don’t feel guilty about anything pleasurable, but I regularly destroy brain cells by watching rubbishy reality shows such as American Idol and Air Crash Investigation.

Is writing your full-time employment? If not, what is your ‘day job’?

I’m currently taking a sabbatical from my day job as a television screenwriter for Clockwork Zoo studios. I love being at home and working for myself, but I miss my brilliant co-writers, Lauren Beukes, Sam Wilson and Greig Cameron, terribly.

Which super-human power would you most like to have?

A shapeshifter like Maya – a character in the 1970’s show Space: 1999. With a flick of an eyelid Maya could transform into any animal she chose (or, in some instances, a man in a monster suit). She also had plaited eyebrows which I still covet. 

What was your favourite book as a child?

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

The Believers by Zoe Heller and The Girl with the Crooked Nose by Ted Botha.

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Exhibit A
Sarah Lotz

EAN: 9780143025726
Format: Paperback
Release Date: 1 May 2009

Recommended Retail Price: R120

Meet Georgie Allen: Cape Town’s self-proclaimed worst-dressed-lawyercum-used-car-dealer. Battling with nicotine and caffeine addiction,housemate worries and the revenge of the Witch, his vengeful ex-lover, the last thing he needs is to take on another pro-bono case.

But when Rachel, a woman he meets in a bar asks him to help her sister Nina, who has accused a policeman of raping her in a police cell, he can’t say no.

Armed only with his irascible Scottish sidekick, Patrick and a renegade township mongrel named Exhibit A, the threesome head into the Karoo to investigate the case. From corrupt policemen to small-town discrimination and a local gossip grapevine, the scruffy but good-hearted Georgie battles his way through the reality of dealing with a rape case in the post-apartheid Rainbow Nation.

Patrick, who eats his way through a seemingly endless stream of junk food, studiously avoids paying restaurant bills and consciously peppers his speech with Scottish burrs like “fooking hell, laddie”, loves nothing more than a fight against the establishment. Exhibit A, the cocky mongrel with his own sense of justice who adopts Georgie, charms everyone from Georgie’s fashionconscious, PA Chesray, who is more concerned with his facial piercings and Paris Hilton’s latest dramas than his work, to flight attendant Clive and the well-muscled Lou, Georgie’s gay flatmates.

But it’s not as cut-and-dried as it looks, Nina’s claim that she was raped is questioned when forensic evidence confl icts with her version of events and Georgie and Patrick have to decide if the many holes in Nina’s story and her dubious past are enough to stop them from going ahead with the case.

Exhibit A is a fast-paced, exciting read that will keep you intrigued from the very fi rst page and present you with characters who will remain with you long after you have put down the book

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Meet Georgie Allen: Cape Town’s self-proclaimed worst-dressed-lawyer-cum-used-car-dealer. Battling with nicotine and caffeine addiction, housemate worries and the revenge of the Witch, his vengeful ex-lover, the last thing he needs is to take on another pro-bono case. But when Rachel, a woman he meets in a bar, asks him to help her sister Nina, who has accused a policeman of raping her in a police cell, he can’t say no. Armed only with his irascible Scottish sidekick, Patrick, and a renegade township mongrel named Exhibit A, the threesome head into the Karoo to investigate the case.

From corrupt policemen to small-town discrimination and a local gossip grapevine, the scruffy but good-hearted Georgie battles his way through the reality of dealing with a rape case in the post-apartheid Rainbow Nation. Patrick, who eats his way through a seemingly endless stream of junk food, studiously avoids paying restaurant bills and consciously peppers his speech with Scottish burrs like “fooking hell, laddie”, loves nothing more than a fight against the establishment.

Exhibit A, the cocky mongrel with his own sense of justice who adopts Georgie, charms everyone from Georgie’s fashion-conscious PA Chesray, who is more concerned with his facial piercings and Paris Hilton’s latest dramas than his work, to flight attendant Clive and the well-muscled Lou, Georgie’s gay flatmates.

But it’s not as cut-and-dried as it looks, Nina’s claim that she was raped is questioned when forensic evidence conflicts with her version of events and Georgie and Patrick have to decide if the many holes in Nina’s story and her dubious past are enough to stop them from going ahead with the case.

Exhibit A is a fast-paced, exciting crime story that will keep you intrigued from the very first page and present you with characters who will remain with you long after you have put down the book.

Sarah Lotz is the author of Pompidou Posse, published by Penguin SA in 2008.

She works as a screen-writer for Clockwork Zoo, Africa’s largest animation studio, and lives in Cape Town with her family and other animals.

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