Paola Dante is a driven project manager employed by a large multinational information technology corporation who reads war strategy books for relaxation. In general she prefers computers to people with their random uncontrolled emotions. Long ago she made a decision that matters of the heart were inherently messy and should be kept at arm’s distance. But her husband had surprised her; she had no resistance against Daniel. Now she sees herself as a survivor who has successfully moved on from the traumatic events and terrible truth surrounding her husband’s sudden disappearance years before. But the truth is that ever since the night he walked out on their marriage back to his old ways she’s found it hard to get on with normal life.

An unlikely and ill-equipped mother, she stands alone between their adopted daughter Simone and the criminal kingpin who wants the teenage girl for his own ends and has set the savage wolves on her.

To save her daughter - and herself - once and for all, Paola will face her every fear, her every mistake, and the past she thought she’d finally processed and left behind.

What is the cost of giving a gift? What is the cost of receiving one?

At eleven years old, Julian Flint prefers to remain invisible, safe inside the architecture of adults provided by his mother, his uncle and his aunt.But when his mother, Emma, a celebrated sculptor, takes them all on a family holiday to a hotel by the sea, he meets the captivating and irreverent Clare and everything he thought he knew begins to shift – setting off a chain of events that will determine each of their fates.

From the author of The Dream House and The White Room comes Craig Higginson’s most gripping and nuanced novel to date. Moving from the lush beaches of uMhlanga Rocks to the stark midwinter wastes of Johannesburg and the rich and strange coral reefs of Mauritius, this masterfully plotted novel explores the fault lines between loyalty and betrayal, innocence and accountability, blindness and perception, entrapment and flight.

The Book of Gifts dives into the deepest and most hazardous reaches of human consciousness in order to catch the brightest fish.

Money. Money. Money. Tons of it. In US dollars. And it’s all being funnelled into a government tender snagged by family-owned Amalfi Civils. Which would be great for business if CEO Angela wasn’t fighting with her CFO brother Rej.

Where Angela sees corruption, Rej sees cabinet ministers, politicians, officials eager to lend a hand. For a fee. It’s a big pot so he’s happy to oblige. And if needs be he’ll take out his sister to keep the lucre.

There are other players in this game. The CIA for one. The State Security Agency for another. And a black op using lawyer and spy Vicki Kahn as a honeytrap to ensnare Rej’s middleman – the very same middleman that her lover, PI Fish Pescado, is investigating.

With these stakes, it’s only time before the killing starts.