Talking Location With … Rob Starr: SOUTH AFRICA

12th July 2025

Talking Location With … Rob Starr, author of Black Gold, set in South Africa.

“Black Gold” is the second instalment in my Kiara Fox series and sees her travel, to South Africa, to take on her latest job.

The first book was very much based around Brighton, where Kiara lives and it would have been easy for me to keep the focus on her hometown, but I really wanted this series not to be Brighton centric. I really want to take Kiara out of her comfort zone, and what better way to do that than throw her cases in countries where she instantly feels out of control. So, for book two, what better place than South Africa. Rightly or wrongly, when one thinks of South Africa, one instantly thinks about its troubled past, and whatever stories the press now focus on, which as we know are rarely positive ones. But of course time has moved on and whilst Johannesburg perhaps isn’t the safest city in the world, other cities like Capetown are thriving as the tourists flow in.

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I chose South Africa for Kiara’s next adventure for a variety of reasons, not least because I love to write about what I know, and of course this is all about what I want, isn’t it!

My connection with the country is that around eight years ago I had an opportunity to expand my business, an insurance company, to the region. Since then I have set up satellite offices in both Johannesburg and Capetown, and have clients all over Africa now.  So I have cause to visit South Africa at least once every quarter, and during these trips my mind always drifts to what would happen if I placed Kiara there without a group of close friends whom she could call if she needed help.

I was settled on South Africa being the location for book two. That then left me to come up with a case for her to work on. Once again, sticking to what I know, I decided on this being about oil theft and climate change.  My personal connection with this is that as a business we insure a number of tankers that transport oil around the world, some sailing from South Africa itself, and over the years I have seen a number of incidents that are just so alien to someone living and working in England.  For instance, did you know that Oil Theft is a Hundred Billion Dollar business?  That is right, over a hundred billion dollars worth of oil is stolen every year. Isn’t that staggering, almost unfathomable?  But who is stealing all that oil and where is the money going?  Well this is where my imagination really can have fun. Over the years I have worked on a number of claims and it is clear to me that money itself is rarely the sole reason fraud takes place. Almost always the money is being taken to fulfil a certain purpose.  Actually I think it’s fair to say that the money itself is never the cause, only the solution.  Even in a very basic theft, money is taken to be spent on something, never to just keep it.  But who would steal oil?  Well people fighting to protect the climate against the big bad oil companies sounded probable.  Talking the money from oil profits and using it to enact revenge against them seemed like an interesting spin.

So that was is, I was settled on the case and settled on the country. Now was the fun part, taking Kiara to hotels and neighbourhoods I have been to myself.  Fortunately, two of my favourite Hotels in the world are there, Cape Grace at the Waterfront in Capetown and the Saxon in Johannesburg.  If I was to enjoy these incredible places, then I had to let Kiara experience them as well.  But I could not miss out taking her to places like Table Mountain, or the beachs at Camps Bay.  And every adventure needs somewhere frightening, so where better than one of the largest townships in the entire world.  South Africa, even with all its beauty and its natural resources, is still a country struggling with poverty and I just needed to have Kiara experience that as well.

South Africa, despite its many faults, is a country I really love.  They call it God’s country and I totally understand why. It is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and the fact that it has an edge to is for me just the icing on the cake.

Photograph by Sam Stephenson

ROB STARR

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