Hitmen for Hire
Exposing South Africa’s Underworld
Written By Mark Shaw
Narrated by Adrian Galley
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When you next sit down at your local coffee shop, look around you: there may just be a professional hitman sitting at the next table. As author Mark Shaw reveals in this highly original and informative book, the ‘upper world’ sails perilously close to the underworld.
Hitmen For Hire takes the reader on a journey like no other, navigating a world of hammermen (hitmen), informers, rogue policemen, taxi bosses, gang leaders and crooked businessmen. The book examines a system in which contract killings have become the norm, looking at who arranges hits, where to find a hitman, and even what it is like to be a hitman – or woman.
Since 1994, South Africa has witnessed some spectacular underworld killings associated with various industries and sectors. Drawing on over a thousand cases, from 2000 to 2016, Shaw reveals how these murders have an outsized impact on the evolution of both legal and illegal economic activity.
About the Author
Mark Shaw is the author of Breaking the Bombers and Give Us More Guns. He is also director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Shaw was previously the National Research Foundation Professor of Justice and Security at the University of Cape Town and worked for ten years at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He has held a number of positions in the South African government and civil society, where he worked on issues of public safety and urban violence in the post-apartheid transition.
About the Narrator
Adrian Galley has a background in medical technology before military conscription. Undergraduate at School of Dramatic Arts, Wits University. Theatre (straight, classical, musical), television, film and radio. Adrian is a trained journalist, desk editor/news anchor of 702, SAfm and Cape Talk radio.
Adrian wrote sitcoms and various television dramas as head writer. He headed up the Live Performance Department at AFDA (Cape Town). Obtained BA Honours in Film Production with scriptwriting and editing. Adrian graduated from UCT with Masters in Dramatic Art. Studied Linguistics through Leiden University and has worked as a dialect coach on many theatre and international film productions.
Audiobook Details:
Published: October 2023
ISBN: 9781776193622
Narrator: Adrian Galley
