An Old-Fashioned Detective Story—With a Twist By Michael Sears Bryony Rheam is a Zimbabwean who lives in Bulawayo. Her debut novel This September Sun was named Best First Book in the Zimbabwe…
International
A Thriller with Parallels to Our Current Reality By Michael Sears Lauren Beukes shot to prominence in 2013 with her debut The Shining Girls. Before that, she was a feature journalist and…
An Eye-Opening Collection Set in Nairobi By Michael Sears In their City Noir series, Akashic Books has been bringing out some eye-opening collections from Africa. The first sub-Saharan volume was Lagos Noir,…
A Gripping Fusion of Police Procedural and Thriller By Michael Sears Nechama Brodie has worked as a journalist, editor, and publisher for nearly 25 years. During this time she’s dodged the secret…
Not Your Average Serial Killer Book By Michael Sears Johan Jack Smith’s new novel, ZOLA, starts off as a classic serial killer police procedural: the horrendous murder of a young woman, followed…
A Unique Take on the Serial Killer Formula By Michael Sears Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut, MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER, is an extraordinary novel. The premise is that two sisters are so close…
Lagos Featured in New City Noir Collection By Michael Sears On a recent trip to Botswana I picked up a copy of LAGOS NOIR, an anthology edited by well-known Nigerian author Chris…
Turning Real Life into a Convincing Mystery By Michael Sears Louisa Treger was a classical violinist until she turned to literature and earned a doctorate in English. Her critically acclaimed debut, The…
Strong Female Characters Drive Narrative in Park’s 16th Thriller By Michael Sears Tony Park is the acclaimed author of 16 thrillers all set in southern Africa, as well as six biographical books.…
Exploring Murder as an Artform By Dawn Ius Nearly 200 years ago, Thomas De Quincey published the controversial essay “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts”—a fictional, satirical account made…
Balancing the Line Between Fact and Fiction By Dawn Ius More than a decade has passed since Michael Stanley—pseudonym for the acclaimed writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip—published A Carrion…
A Cheetah in Book Form By Michael Sears Max Annas is a German journalist who lived for a time in East London, a coastal city in the Eastern Cape province of South…
Nothing as it Seems in Dark and Racy new Thriller By Michael Sears Cape Town author Peter Church’s debut Dark Video was released in 2008 and he was acclaimed as the best…
Marriage, Murder, and Plenty of Questions at Heart of Thrilling Debut By Dawn Ius Harriet Tyce knew she wanted to create a character who was fully human—not only with good and bad…
By Basil Sands Ken Kuhlken’s THE VERY LEAST: A HICKEY FAMILY CRIME NOVEL, about a journalist who runs afoul of crime bosses, politicians, and tycoons on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border,…
Closing The Book On A Powerful Series By Michael Sears Paul Hardisty has made a name for himself with his powerful issue-driven thrillers featuring Claymore Straker, a South African who discovered the…
Exploring an Island of Ghosts By Michael Sears Not many authors start their careers being compared to Graham Greene, John le Carré, and Alan Furst. Stephen Holgate’s two novels—both set in Africa—have…
No Ordinary Thriller By Michael Sears Jeff Dawson is a well-known journalist and author of non-fiction. He is a long-standing contributor to The Sunday Times culture section, writing regular A-list arts features…
When Trust Is a Shapeshifter By Michael Sears Toni Kan is a creative writer, biographer, editor, and public relations expert. Kan, who was educated at the University of Jos and the University…
Beauty, Violence, and Redemption By Michael Sears Karin Brynard grew up in the Northern Cape and many of her books are set in that dramatic, semi-arid landscape. She was a journalist and…
Spinning a Thriller From Corruption By Michael Sears Rupert Smith spent 25 years as a successful corporate lawyer in Johannesburg before joining a coal mining company as part of its senior management.…
By Layton Green During a recent book festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I was chatting to a fellow author on the way to dinner. I discovered through conversation that she was a…
Engulfed in Turmoil By Michael Sears Paul Mendelson is a man of many talents: writer, interviewer, actor, script-writer for theatre and television. He is also an expert on bridge and poker, and…
Where Global Forces Meet Ordinary Lives By Michael Sears For more than 30 years, Michael Niemann has been interested “in the sites where ordinary people’s lives and global processes intersect,” and he…