Dr Temperance Brennan is called in to investigate what looks like a death by lightening, but finds herself deep in a much larger case in Kathy Reichs’ The Bone Hacker. Young men, tourists on the islands of Turks and Caicos, have been disappearing for years. They appear to have nothing in common, other than the unusual locations where their bodies are finally found. When Tempe herself becomes a target, the tension goes into overdrive. Simon and Schuster
Vendetta is the thrilling new adventure by Tony Park, revolving around two men caught in the crossfires of a decades-old feud between five veterans of South Africa’s apartheid-era Border War. The ex-paratroopers have to confront their demons, and each other, at the funeral of a comrade in the Kalahari desert, with each of them having to ask themselves ‘when serving your country, what makes you a hero and what secrets are worth dying for?’. Macmillan
Described as eerie, intense, thrilling, Danielle Valentine’s DELICATE CONDITION is the story of an actress who is desperate to have a baby. But as she undergoes a gruelling IVF regime, she starts suspecting some is going to great lengths to ensure she doesn’t fall pregnant. When she eventually does, doctors tell her she’s lost the baby. But she can still feel it moving in her body. And her symptoms become terrifying. But no-one – not her doctors, not her husband – will listen when she tells them something is horribly wrong. Scary, unsettling, twisted … not for the fainthearted! Viper
It takes a certain kind of person to tackle the dark realities of gangland London. Someone like MI5 officer Matt Logan. This undercover operative is part of a clandestine team, one who, in TARGET AND DESTROY, pick up on a trail of corruption that reaches to the top of the UK’s National Crime Agency. The team’s mission … to bring down their target – a detective who’s ruthless, not afraid to break the rules, and who has left numerous bodies in his wake on his mission to climb to the top. Author Tom Marcus is a former MI5 officer, so there’s loads of insights into the real life of these teams. Macmillan
These, and more book club reads, from exclusivebooks.co.za