Secrets only survive in the dark

When journalist Ben Harper is asked to help re-examine an unsolved murder case from thirty years ago, he immediately agrees. It's not just that the victim was also a journalist, murdered after she'd published a series of shocking interviews with victims of domestic abuse. It's also that he understands all too well the need of victim's daughter, Doctor Uma Jha, for answers.

But it's not long before their investigation leads to threats being made on Uma's life. Ben needs to unravel this crime before it's too late, but instead he finds himself tangled in a web of lies and deception. After all, a crime like murder has implications for many people.

People who have been keeping secrets for thirty years, and will do whatever it takes to protect them.

I'd always dreamed of my wedding day. But not like this. Not looking into the eyes of the man who betrayed me. But when my nephew's guardianship is contested, I decide I'll do whatever it takes to keep him in Rose Hill. Even if it means marrying the enemy.

Rhys Dupris.

A man who is secretive, broody, and completely infuriating. A man whose work takes him away for weeks on end and brings him back covered in mysterious bruises-ones he won't talk about. In fact, we barely talk at all. Which would be fine, except when he's not talking, he's staring. And the way he looks at me is borderline indecent. The tension between us has always been palpable. But living under the same roof is a dangerous temptation.

I swore I would never forgive him. But that was before I knew the man behind the mask. The one who's fierce and protective. The one who's gentle and patient. The one who shows up for us when we need him most.

He's not at all who I thought he was.

And that makes hating my husband so much harder... and loving him just a little too easy.

Shona Shah’s life is chaotic. She is shackled to a family obligation, has a casual relationship with a childhood friend, Senthil Aiyer, unfulfilled dreams and a heap of clothing at the bottom of her cupboard that she doesn’t have time to hang up.

In a bold move, Shona walks out of her family’s tailor business to forge her own path. But the beautiful, twenty-something bridal designer soon realises that to move forward, she has to look at her family’s past.

Shona’s journey of self-discovery is a whirlwind of humour and heartache as she learns to accept that her ‘no pillow talk’ rule with Senthil can be broken. Sen discovers that sometimes the greatest love stories can unfold right in the middle of the ‘chaos’ that he has always tried to avoid.

This is a modern story about love and friendship, following your passion and embracing the unpredictable journey of life.

Pillow Talk is the first of a series set in the fictional town of Rally in KwaZulu-Natal from the new queen of South African romance.

Annelie Botes se afsterwe op 12 Desember 2024 het die einde van ’n era ingelui. ’n Era van byna meer as twee dekades waarin sy gedagtes, opinies en insigte oor die lewe met ’n toegewyde lesersgehoor gedeel het. Vir Afrikaans lesers was haar weeklikse rubrieke ’n bron waaruit hulle mildelik geskep het om sin te maak van die wêreld en om inspirasie te vind sodat hul eie skale kon balanseer.

Die rubrieke in hierdie bundel het van 2020 tot 2024 verskyn en volg op Voetstoots, ’n keur van Annelie se rubrieke tussen 2006 en 2020. Vir die menigte lesers vir wie Annelie se stem oor die jare ’n vertroude instelling geraak het, is haar menings ’n besielende kleinood
waarheen hulle meermale sal terugkeer om woorde te vind wanneer dit in hul eie stemme ontbreek.

Hierdie bundel is ’n versameling kantaantekeninge tydens tydperke van ingrypende inkeer en verlies. In Maart 2020 het die Covid-19-pandemie die wêreld getref – bunkertyd in Annelie se taal. In haar wêreld was die tyd van korona ’n voorspel tot haar eie finale
periode van aflegging, siekte, amputasie en uiteindelik, die onvermydelike seisoen van “die engele met raspervlerke”.

From the shadows. A new evil will rise. Faceless. Nameless.

Since his appointment as Nomarch of Memphis, by the God-Pharaoh Rameses, Piay has thrown himself into pulling the city back from the brink. The famous white city walls have been rebuilt, the once starving inhabitants fed and every day caravans have arrived from the desert wastes, filled with the many riches looted and hidden by the Hyksos. But when the body of a murdered scribe is found sealed inside the newly constructed city vault - the mark of Anubis, god of death, scrawled next to him in his own blood - panic sweeps the city. Only the wisest man in all Egypt can solve this mystery - Piay's mentor, the great sage Taita.

Called from his place at the God-Pharaoh Rameses' side, Taita's arrival in Memphis calms the populace, but it isn't long before the mark of Anubis appears again, and again. Taita and Piay are drawn into a battle of wits against a criminal mastermind turned warlord, his aim - with the demise of the Hyksos - to see the kingdom of the Red Pretender restored and the forces of Rameses crushed.

Will everything that Taita has fought for be torn asunder? Or will he and Piay finally reunite the two kingdoms? Only time will tell. And time is running out.

Book 4 in The New Kingdom Sequence and book 10 in the Ancient Egyptian series from the master historical adventure writer, Wilbur Smith.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.

Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.

But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.

That’s if they can agree on anything.

Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?

Soms lê ek in my bed, my lyf opgekrul om herinneringe aan hom, totdat dit voel asof die woonstel se dak oplig en die mure wegval en ek omhels word deur die nag se fluweelsagte duisternis. Dan dryf ek uit my lyf, tot in die buitenste ruim waar my ouers glo al vir dekades lank saam met ruimterommel en stukkies meteoriet, al om en om ’n hemelliggaam sweef.

Op my boekrak staan ’n geraamde foto van hulle, geneem net voor hul laaste ruimtesending. Hul gesigte is stroef, asof hulle geweet het dit is hul laaste missie.

Of dalk het hulle net in die son gekyk.

Mila Kozlowa is ’n Moskouse psigoterapeut wat tydens beradingsessies sit en fantaseer oor geroosterde salm en seks.

Sy dink ook aan haar kinderjare – sprokiesagtige besoeke aan ’n afgeleë hut in ’n berkewoud saam met haar ouma Babusja. Nou is Babusja oud en verswak en Mila is verantwoordelik vir haar. Wat steek haar ouma vir haar weg? Waar is Mila se ouers? Het hulle regtig tydens ’n ruimtereis verdwyn?

Intussen ontmoet Mila ’n Suid-Afrikaner wat sy oorlogtrauma met haar deel en kort voor lank begin die skeidslyn tussen werklikheid en fantasie vervaag. Waar eindig die droom en begin die realiteit? En vir hoe lank kan ’n mens jou eie leuens glo?

Moord aan boord van die Leonardo

Forensiese patoloog Madelein Blignaut het al te veel dood in haar loopbaan gesien. Ná nog ’n ontstellende hofsaak besluit sy om ontvlugting te gaan soek op die Leonardo, ’n luukse passasierskip wat deur die verre ooste vaar.

Daar ontmoet sy ’n groep fassinerende Suid-Afrikaners: Die bekroonde pianis Tibor Lindeque wat kort-kort bekommerd vir haar kyk en ’n aantreklike kulkunstenaar Helmut Coleman wat gou vir haar onweer-staanbaar raak.

Wanneer hulle op Okinawa afklim, vertel Tibor vir haar die inwoners van hierdie eiland word oeroud. “Daar is nie dood op Okinawa nie.”

Maar hy is verkeerd. Kort voor lank tref hulle die een na die ander medepassasier se lyk aan. ’n Storm dwing hulle na dieper waters toe, en dan besef Madelein daar is ’n moordenaar op die Leonardo. Wie is dit? Wat wil hulle hê? En, meer belangrik, wie’s volgende?

The stunning third book in the sexy, action-packed Crescent City series, following the global bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath.

Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.

Three bodies are found scattered across South Africa. One on the shores of the Indian Ocean, one in a farm invasion in modern KwaZulu-Natal, and one in 1880, in the aftermath of the Anglo-Zulu War.

Detective Sannie van Rensburg and marine biologist and former soldier Adam Kruger are each on the trail of a mystery, while more than a century ago colonial police officer Peter Gregory has a secret mission: to find the lost sword of the great Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

But he’s not the only one who wants it.

From the blood-soaked battlefields of colonial-era Zululand to the modern-day political struggles over land and poaching in South Africa and war in the Middle East, these investigations are on a dangerous collision course.

Because people will kill for a symbol of power.

You’d never guess Lottie Jones had skeletons in her closet.

She’s lived in town for decades now. She’s getting older. She lives for the simple pleasures of weekly bingo games at church, and gossiping with her friends about their children’s love lives.

But when investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past, and specifically about her connection to numerous unsolved murders, well, Lottie just can’t have that.

But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realises this crime might just be the death of her…

Frankie Elkin usually prefers her cases cold. Until she finds herself in the broiling streets of Tucson, Arizona, where an Afghan refugee has been missing for three weeks.

The woman she is looking for, Sabera Ahmadi, is a wife and young mother, haunted by war, scarred by her past.

The police and Sabera’s husband seem indifferent to her disappearance.

But Frankie knows trauma. She knows it can fuel or destroy you.

And when she sees the distress in Sabera’s daughter’s eyes, she makes a decision she soon regrets: find Sabera.

But in order to solve the mystery of Sabera’s present, Frankie must revisit her past in order to uncover the dark secret she is hiding.

A secret so dangerous it might kill them both …

Ocean Vuong returns with an achingly beautiful novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

New York playwright Melina Green has never seen her work on stage. In a man’s world, only through a lie can she get the recognition she yearns for.

But Melina is not the first woman in her family to discover this.

Her ancestor Emilia Bassano, mistress to one of Elizabeth I’s most valued noblemen, was no stranger to being silenced.

She decided to do something about it. Her daring act of deception has consequences that will reverberate down the centuries.

Yet to change a world can mean terrible sacrifices – your name, your family’s future, and your legacy.

These two women will never meet. But together can they rewrite history?

May 1998: Mimi Traung and her baby daughter Ngan wait restlessly at the gates of Philadelphia airport. There is still a day’s travelling left before they would land back home on Vietnamese soil. While they prepare to board, the unimaginable happens.

Seventeen years later, two best friends are discussing their summer plans before college over a piece of mooncake. Both have trips ahead in search of their roots: Sabrina is preparing to travel to China to meet her mother’s family. Kit leaves for Tokyo, convinced that her biological mother is Japanese. Their parents watch on from the quiet suburbs of Chestnut Hill, nervous of what their daughters might find.

Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates. Each of these women are looking to find their place in the world. Eventually Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face, and have to confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties.

A rare masterpiece by Picasso is about to go to auction, and the whole world is watching.

But bright art student Halston Graham sees an opportunity. One that could secure millions for her future – and freedom for her wrongly imprisoned father…

To pull off the crime of the century, she must assemble an unlikely crack team: an expert in forgery, a ruthless mob boss, and an eccentric fashion designer.

In a game where trust is a luxury and failure is not an option, will Halston’s brilliance be enough to outsmart her enemies?

Annabel is in the thick of sandwich generation territory.

Widowed for nearly a decade and bringing up two teenagers alone, she now faces the dilemma of what is best for her ageing mother.

Her strong-willed sisters, Ginnie and Clarissa, have already mentally sold her mother’s London house, mentally spent the proceeds, but Annabel isn't sure what her mother will think of their plan. . .

After a decade on her own, Annabel's children have also decided now is the time to act as match makers. Before she knows it, Annabel has two romantic prospects; the charming, ex-army builder currently doing the loft extension in her home and, even more unexpectedly, the vicar from her local church.

But when family secrets come to light which threaten the entire fabric of Annabel’s childhood and family, what what — or who — she needs in her life comes becomes suddenly crystal clear to her, in the most surprising of ways. . .

IN A DEN OF VIPERS, REVENGE IS THE DEADLIEST WEAPON.

After my sister was attacked and hospitalised, my world was shattered.

Now, all I have left is vengeance.

The problem? I have no idea who did this to her.

My only lead is The Vipers, an elite college hockey team that rules the ice―and the shadows beyond it.
To infiltrate their secret society, I set my sights on their weakest link: Kane Davenport, the Viper’s charismatic captain.

But too late, I realise I’ve enticed the most venomous snake.

Behind Kane’s perfect mask lies something far more dangerous than I ever imagined.

AND NOW I’M TRAPPED IN A LETHAL GAME WITH NO ESCAPE.

The world of unknowable objects - magical items that most people have no idea possess powers - has been quiet for decades . . .

But three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London. They are pledged to protect their archive of magical items hidden away, safe from the outside world - and keep the world safe from them. But when Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member of the Society of Unknowable Objects, hears of a new artefact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends the Society's newest member, author Magda Sparks, to investigate.

Within hours of arriving in Hong Kong, Magda is facing death and danger, confronted by a professional killer who seems to know all about unknowable objects, specifically one that was stolen from him a decade before. Magda is forced to flee, using an artefact that not even the rest of the Society knows about.

Returning to London, Magda learns hers is not the only secret being kept from the other two members. And that the most pernicious secret is about the nature of the Society’s mission. Her discoveries will lead her on a perilous journey, across the Atlantic to the deep south of the United States - not in pursuit of an unknowable object, but an unknowable person: the killer she first faced in Hong Kong. In doing so, Magda begins to understand that there are even more in the world who are chasing these magical items, and that her own family’s legacy is tied up in keeping all these secrets under wraps.

Magic has always been too powerful to reveal to the world. But Magda will learn there might be something even more powerful: the truth.

Seventeen-year-old June Scott has always dreamt of becoming a novelist. To write the greatest love story ever told. One that would fill hearts and souls with happiness and joy.

However, June has never been in love and when she receives some devastating news, there doesn’t feel as if there’s much time left for her own beautiful love story.

That’s until she meets Jesse Taylor who treats every day as if it could be his last. Which could be true. For them both.

Together their worlds light up and a love so strong grows between them.

With days slipping away like sand in an hourglass June begins to write their love story. June is determined to give the boy she loves the story of them. And the world a reminder of who they might have been if their stars were written differently.

Because even when your heartbeat stops, a true love story never dies.

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”

Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire?or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.

Love, Zola is the captivating continuation of Zola’s vibrant, heart-stirring story. From career pressures to unexpected confessions, Zola and Mbali’s journey tests their understanding of commitment and what a happy ending truly looks like.

Okuhle’s return to Joburg brings unfinished business — not just with her relationship but also with Zola, whose successes only serve as painful reminders of what she’s lost. Meanwhile, Zozo’s happily-ever-after in Durban is shaken as old feelings resurface.

Filled with tension, passion, and poignant revelations, Love, Zola is a story of self-discovery, second chances, and the challenges of modern relationships. Can love survive when the past refuses to let go?

Since taking on a famous celebrity client, defence attorney Jane Smith has been chased down, shot at, and threatened with contempt of court. She’s a survivor. For now.

Jane Smith represents a Hamptons real estate mogul with more enemies than clients.

When Jane’s own life is threatened, mounting a legal defence turns into self-defence.

Knowing every day in court could be her last, she’s armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence - and two Glocks.

Until she hears the words “not guilty,” Jane Smith will Never Say Die.

Bryden and Sam have it all - thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condo, supportive friends and a cherished daughter.

The perfect life for the perfect couple.

Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden – working from home that day - has failed to collect their daughter from daycare.

Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.

Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.

How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all?

With every minute that passes – and as questions swirl around their community – Bryden and Sam’s past seems a little less perfect, their luxury condo less safe, their friends, neighbours and relatives no longer quite so reliable . . .

Sexy, swoony and very spicy, the international bestselling sensation, Monica Murphy, is back with an emotionally charged novel bound to set pulses racing . . .

The tables turne when the girl August Lancaster couldn’t stand at Lancaster Prep shows up at the same university he attends.

She is suddenly everywhere.

And is determined to remind him exactly who she is . . .