Paige Nick on a killing spree of books

TimesLIVE

06-07-2025

Reams of gore and intrigue in small-town South Africa
As I type this, I'm on a serious killing spree across the Western Cape. First, I committed multiple murders in a small village there, possibly Stanford. Then I gouged out someone's eyes before murdering them in Cape Town, and I'm currently murdering someone in Knysna and trying to make that one look like a suicide. OK, no need to make a call to Crimeline to report me yet. I've just finished reading three killer debut South African crime authors that you really need to know about.
Making a Killing by Bonnie Espie (Kwela): The moreish, fun cosy one
Making a Killing by Espie is the first in what is sure to be a fun, new cosy crime series. I joyfully whipped through this novel with one eye closed at some points because it got deliciously gory. It's set in that small South African village we all recognise. Winifred has escaped the big city to hide from a dodgy past, and she opens a bookshop-slash-restaurant with a strange new accomplice, I mean acquaintance, Sylvie. Soon it appears murder is on the menu. The author lives in a small South African village herself. If I were her neighbours I'd sleep with one eye open; it seems murder comes to her terrifyingly easily.
Unsolicited by Andrea Shaw (Jacana Media): The interesting, brilliant one set in publishing
More murder on the menu here, but this one entirely deeper and darker. In Unsolicited a reader is found dead, eyes melted out! Detective Fatima Matthews is on the case, but she's on something else too: menopause. If her hot flushes would just ease up for half a second, maybe she could concentrate on the crime at hand. And speaking of crimes, her son is visiting with his wife, baby, and family too, so things are about to escalate. This murder is set in the publishing industry and Fatima is going to have to delve into the publishing house's slush pile to find more clues. But first, she's got to deal with her in-laws.
If the Dead Could Talk by Juliette Mnqeta (Kwela): The gripping one that digs up the past
The cop in question in this new series is detective Florian Welter, and he doesn't just have what looks like a high-profile politician's questionable suicide to solve, he also has to deal with his dyslexia and the covah, or rather havoc, it caused in his last job, which was what got him relegated to Knysna in the first place. This well-written, moreish police procedural crime thriller also tracks the story of the victim's daughter seeking closure. It's full of entertaining twists and conspiracy theories that go all the way back to the nineties. All three of these are clever, well-written novels. If you're a crime fan, and even if you're not, all are very much worth the read. So cosy up, and get ready to start guessing whodunnit.
* Paige Nick is the author of the smash hit new novel Book People and several other acclaimed novels. She runs The Good Book Appreciation Society, a book club on Facebook with over 23k members, and hosts Book Choice on Fine Music Radio every second Tuesday at 12pm. She spends far too much time reading and writing, and hates plastic forks.