General

by Katie Agnew (Orion) ISBN: 9781409124917 Sophia Beaumont Brown, the epitome of good girl gone bad, has led a privileged life, now marred by drugs and alcohol. Cut off from her family, Sophia continues to live a party girl existence with her best friend Hugo. Her grandmother, dying of terminal cancer, reaches out to Sophia

Edited by Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu and Miranda Strydom (PanMacmillan South Africa) ISBN: 9781770103412 The Thabo Mbeki I Know is a book of 46 recollections, and two forewords, celebrating the life of President Thabo Mbeki, one of South Africa’s, and indeed Africa’s, most exceptional thought leaders. The contributors are friends, comrades, statesmen, politicians and business associates

edited by Joanne Hichens (Tattoo Press) ISBN: 9780994680518 This collection of South African short stories is the latest from the Short. Sharp. Stories Awards, supported by the National Arts Festival. It reminded me of the early Roald Dahl short stories: uncomfortable enough to make you think, delicate enough to touch your emotions, and cleverly twisted

by Jennifer Bell (Corgi Books) ISBN: 9780552572507 Jennifer Bell began her career in in children’s books as a specialist bookseller at Foyles in London, one of the world’s most famous bookshops. The Crooked Sixpence is the first book in The Uncommoners Series. Ivy and her brother Seb are at the hospital because their granma Sylvie

by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge (Century) ISBN 978-1-78-089273-3 Michael Bennett returns in this action-packed story, this time to stop an assassination attempt on the US president. Similar to most of the stories in the series, Mike showcases his incredible detective skills as, together with the NYPD, he goes on a hunt to not only prevent the

by Julia Claiborne Johnson (Corvus) ISBN: 9781782399179 Julia Claiborne Johnson is an American journalist and this is her debut novel. Mimi, known as M.M. Banning, is another Harper Lee. She is a reclusive writer who had one literary bestseller. Mimi decides to write a second novel, because she has lost all her money. Upon her request,

by Ann Cleeves (Macmillan) ISBN: 9781447278214 Cold Earth is the seventh in Ann Cleeves’s acclaimed Shetland series, now a major BBC drama. She has published 25 novels and has a large and faithful following. On a cold and wet winter’s day, villagers in the north-eastern archipelago of Shetland gather at a graveside to bid farewell to an