Who knew a Marilyn Monroe movie could kill you?

When Oom Frik of Oom Frik’s Fantastiques dies during a vintage movie screening in Ladismith, Tannie Maria and her policeman boyfriend Henk are on the scene. Ja, the old thrift-shop owner had a heart condition, but was there more to his demise? It’s rumoured that among Frik’s junk are valuable treasures, and the grumpy, paranoid old guy frequently altered his will. When a second body turns up, there’s a clue: a letter addressed to Tannie Maria asking for advice – and a milk tart recipe.

Fifty-plus agony-aunt Maria and feisty young journalist Jessie conduct their own treasure hunt and murder investigation. The police are looking for the perpetrator too, but the amateur detectives have unique skills, and Tannie Maria’s food is a powerful incentive to get people to talk.

Maria and Jessie step into deep danger, but all is not doom and gloom. Spring has arrived in the Karoo, and Henk and Maria discuss moving in together, even though his home is full of his late wife’s stuff. Maria knows food has a way of filling the dark spaces, for better or for worse. Perhaps, once the Klein Karoo crime-buster’s work is done, she might follow her own advice and try a healing recipe.

Tannie Maria might be the Karoo’s favourite agony aunt, but when it comes to matters of her own heart, she doesn’t have all the answers.

Why is she having trouble telling her beau – the dashing Detective Henk Kannemeyer with the chestnut moustache – that she loves him? There are other, more pressing problems too. A tall, dark stranger zoomed in on her Ducati motorbike: she is Zabanguni Kani, a journalist renowned for her political exposés, who, after receiving threats, must move in with Tannie Maria for safety. Who could tell that a trip to the country’s northern borders was on the cards?

The journey will plunge Maria and her friends into pools of danger, amid water maidens, murders, and Harley Davidsons. Ladismith’s famous crime fighter is back – with a tin of buttermilk rusks in hand – to restore eace from the Klein Karoo to the great Limpopo River.

Tannie Maria, everyone’s favourite amateur detective and agony aunt, has finally heeded the call of her fans countrywide to produce her very first cookbook. Recipes to Die Live For features recipes from Sally Andrews’ first four murder mystery novels, as well as some tantalising new additions.

Spiced with enjoyable sayings from the four novels, as well as letters written to ‘Tannie Maria’s Love Advice and Recipe Column’, and seasoned with photographs of the food and the beautiful Karoo, Recipes to Die Live For is as warm and witty as Tannie Maria herself, guaranteed to delight fans and newcomers to the series.

Many of the dishes are slow foods and traditional South African recipes, but there are also quick meals and new inventions, from nachos to spekboom ice cream. Whether you are craving a Karoo lamb pie or a vetkoek with mince, or are lus for a melktert or koeksister, you will find it among Tannie Maria’s gastronomic delights.

The best selling series Tannie Maria is now available in a book pack!

Featuring the first 4 books in the series.

This award winning local series will take you deep into the Karoo landscape. Featuring delightful, colourful characters, mysteries and delicious food.

Get ready to solve the cases with Tannie Maria and Jessie.

Recipes for Love and Murder


The first and most popular of the Tannie Maria series: Tannie Maria, our fifty- something, short and soft main character, with her brown curls and untidy Afrikaans, is introduced to the readers. What will this amateur detective uncover in a small town marinated in secrets?The Satanic MechanicTannie Maria seeks out a counsellor, jokily known to all as “the satanic mechanic”. Then a murder flings her straight into Detective Henk Kannemeyer’s investigation. Not only is she dating the dashing Henk, she now has to work beside him: a potential recipe for disaster.Death on the LimpopoLadismith’s famous crime fighter is back – with a tin of buttermilk rusks in hand – to restore peace from the Klein Karoo to the great Limpopo River. The third instalment in the Tannie Maria Mystery crime series plunges Maria and her friends into pools of danger, amid water maidens, murders, and Harley Davidsons.The Milk Tart MurdersWhen Oom Frik of Oom Frik’s Fantastiques dies during a vintage movie screening in Ladismith, Tannie Maria and her policeman boyfriend Henk are on the scene. When a second body turns up, there’s a clue: a letter addressed to Tannie Maria asking for advice – and a milk tart recipe.

*Limited tote bags available.

Meet Tannie Maria: the loveable writer of recipes in her local paper, the Klein Karoo Gazette.

One Sunday morning, as Maria stirs apricot jam, she hears her editor Harriet on the stoep. What Maria doesn't realise is that Harriet is about to deliver a whole basketful of challenges and the first ingredient in two new recipes - recipes for love and murder.

A delicious blend of intrigue, milk tart and friendship, join Tannie Maria in her first investigation. Consider your appetite whetted for a whole new series of mysteries . . .

Everybody’s favourite agony aunt and crime fighter Tannie Maria needs some counselling advice of her own. Lingering troubles from a previous marriage still sit heavy on her, while fresh worries about Slimkat, a local man whose fight for his people’s land threatens his life, keep her up at night. Tannie Maria seeks out counsellor, jokily known to all as “the satanic mechanic”. Straight out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and from hot-as-hell Hotazel, Ricus fixes both cars and people.

But Maria’s counselling tune-up switches gears when a murder flings her straight into Detective Henk Kannemeyer’s investigation. Not only is she dating the dashing Henk, she now has to work beside him: a potential recipe for disaster.

Blending an intriguing mystery with characters as lovable as the setting of the rural Klein Karoo, this book is Sally Andrew’s delightful, warm-hearted sequel to Recipes for Love and Murder.

Meet Tannie Maria - recipe writer turned crime fighter - and before she has time to take her Venus Chocolate Cake out of the oven, our glorious heroine finds herself embroiled in another mystery. In this wonderful sequel to Recipes for Love and Murder, Slimkat the bushman finds his life under threat and Tannie Maria is determined to find out who wants to kill him. But her boyfriend is keen to keep Tannie out of danger, and she's pretty sure he's hiding something so Tannie has mysteries of her own solve . . . Blending a perfect whodunnit with lovable characters, Sally Andrew really does have the perfect recipe for a crime series.

Reading is one of the most sophisticated demonstrations of human pattern recognition and symbolic processing skill. Skilled readers effortlessly comprehend written text at rates of at least 300 words per minute, despite the complex interactions between perceptual, cognitive and memory processes required for effective comprehension. Understanding how we achieve this remarkable feat has been a focus of investigation since the birth of experimental psychology. Over the last two decades, visual word recognition has been at the forefront of developments in cognitive science. This book brings together many of the most influential contributors to these developments to reflect on current issues in the cognitive science of lexical processing and the methods required for further progress. The first section focuses on computational models. Written words provide a fertile context for large-scale modelling and the domain of lexical retrieval has become a test-bed for evaluating competing theoretical frameworks. The later sections draw upon cognitive psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science and neuroscience to elaborate critical theoretical issues and to develop novel research tools.
"From Inkmarks to Ideas" provides advanced students and researchers with a comprehensive overview of the critical theoretical and empirical controversies in current research on the cognitive science of lexical processing and reading.

Everybody’s favourite agony aunt and crime fighter Tannie Maria needs some counselling advice of her own. Lingering troubles from a previous marriage still sit heavy on her, while fresh worries about Slimkat, a local man whose fighting for his people’s land threatens his life, keep her up at night.

Meet Tannie Maria: the loveable writer of recipes in her local paper, the Klein Karoo Gazette.

One Sunday morning, as Maria stirs apricot jam, she hears her editor Harriet on the stoep. What Maria doesn't realise is that Harriet is about to deliver a whole basketful of challenges and the first ingredient in two new recipes - recipes for love and murder.

A delicious blend of intrigue, milk tart and friendship, join Tannie Maria in her first investigation. Consider your appetite whetted for a whole new series of mysteries . . .

Meet Tannie Maria: She’s fifty-something, short and soft (perhaps a bit too soft in the wrong places) with brown curls and untidy Afrikaans. She is also the agony aunt for the local paper, the Klein Karoo Gazette. One day, her life takes a sinister turn when a woman in the area is murdered and she becomes entangled in the investigation...to the intense irritation of a handsome local policeman. But what else will this amateur detective uncover in a small town marinated in secrets? 

Der Samsara schliesst und offnet sich ...es ist das Bodhi'sat." "...Mit diesen Worten werden vier junge Menschen unfreiwillig aus ihrem Alltag gerissen und finden sich in einer neuen und fremdartigen Welt wieder, die zunachst den Anschein einer hoch entwickelten, nahezu perfekten Gesellschaft gibt. Doch nicht einmal die Tetraten, die Geschicke ihres Reiches lenkenden mit ihren jahrtausende alten Erfahrungen ahnen, dass ihre Welt von einer ubermachtigen Macht beobachtet wird und alles andere als Sicherheit bietet. Wahrend die vier Menschen nach ihrem Platz im Travlanischen Reich suchen, nehmen Ereignisse ihren Lauf, die auch das Leben auf der Erde entscheidend verandern werden."