‘If you made me angry, to me, for that anger to go away I have to get hold of you . . . For that anger to go away, I have to do something to you.’

These are the words of one of South Africa’s most terrifying serial killers as told to Brin Hodgskiss in the bowels of one of our most secure prisons.

Hodgskiss got his doctorate in psychology for a study based on interviews with thirteen serial killers. The recordings sat gathering dust until recently, when top true-crime podcaster Nicole Engelbrecht found his paper online. The two connected and the concept for this book was born.

In Killer Stories, Hodgskiss uses each of the interviews, combined with the tenets of narrative psychology, to take the reader into the minds of the killers. He lays out how the stories these men told themselves about their lives contributed to where they ended up –
and how they aren’t that different from the stories we all tell ourselves.

The book intertwines the killers’ versions of the truth and the truecrime stories behind them, an interpretation of the tales using narrative psychology, and how Hodgskiss’s own journey as a psychologist and human being contributed to his deeper understanding of the minds of these killers.

When 18 year-old Morné Harmse walked into his Krugersdorp high school, armed with a samurai sword on a Monday in 2008, he had one mission – to commit a massacre. Inspired by the Columbine high school killings, his fantasy to make people "take notice" had been brewing for more than a year. By the time his sword-slashing spree had ended, 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius was dead and three others were brutally injured.

In the aftermath of what was described as “the most barbaric act of schoolboy violence in South African history” the country was left reeling. How does an ordinary boy from a "normal" family become a brutal killer overnight? Was Morné under the influence of a satanic cult? A protégée of mastermind Devilsdorp killer, Cecilia Steyn? Did his obsession with heavy metal band Slipknot drive him over the edge? Now, 14 years later, Morné Harmse is out on controversial parole.Written in mesmerising detail, Samurai Sword Murder finally puts together the pieces of this brutal tragedy.

In Klipkoud kyk sy weer na die dossiere van vermiste mense. Sy heroorweeg die leidrade en luister weer na die onderhoude wat sy gevoer het. Baie van hierdie inligting is nog nooit voorheen bekendgemaak nie.

In ’n poging om ’n mate van afsluiting te bied aan die slagoffers se geliefdes, laat val Engelbrecht die soeklig op sowel ou as nuwe onopgeloste sake. Hierdie sake wissel van ’n onbekende vrou wie se oorskot onder ‘n swembad ontdek is tot ‘n jong man wat deur die gevangenisstelsel se krake geval het; van ‘n sakereis wat dodelik ontaard het tot ‘n meisie wat reg voor haar huis ontvoer is.

Engelbrecht neem die leser saam in haar deurtastende soeke na die waarheid.

‘Each one of these boxes contains a human being . . . We ran out of drawers,” the professor explains, “so we started using these boxes.’

Nicole Engelbrecht is back with a new book that delves into the cold cases of her phenomenally popular True Crime SA podcast.

In Bare Bones, she re-examines missing and murder cases she has covered in her podcast series, and revisits the leads and the interviews she conducted. Much of the information has never been made public before.

From the bones of a Jane Doe discovered under a swimming pool to a troubled young man who seemed to vanish in the prison system, from a business trip turned deadly to a child snatched from outside her home, Engelbrecht sifts the evidence anew and shines a light on old and new unsolved cases in the hope of bringing closure to the victims’ families and friends.  Join her in the search for the truth behind the scenes of the podcast desk.