Noted journalist and mystery writer James McClure died June 17th of a respiratory illness at the age of 66. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but living in England for well over the last half his life, he will be long remembered as the author of the 'Kramer and Zondi' police procedural series, groundbreaking in many ways. The first book, The Steam Pig, was published in 1971 during the peak of the apartheid era in his homeland, and along with the seven that followed, contained a not-so-subtle message to those overseas about the inadequacies of a society split so radically along racial lines.