Not content with making fine wines, the Bruce Jack team also produce Jack Journal – along with a collection of brilliant designers and gifted writers who, they say, practise a long-form art of writing where context trumps sound-bites, a magazine they describe as a gorgeous, beautifully crafted, long-lasting, collectable magazine, at a time of rushed, mass-produced things designed to break, wear out and be ugly. It’s a lifestyle mag … the latest filled with everything from indigenous medicinal plants to regenerative agriculture, from the brilliance of beetles to how blisters felled a walker on the Camino Santiago.
Read it with a glass of Bruce Jack Reserve Stream of Consciousness – a hedonistic nose of chocolate-smothered purple plums, framed by vanilla and Indian spices, with notes of black and red forest fruit, brambles and white pepper. The mag’s R140, the wine R150, from brucejack.com
Two wickedly thrilling reads. Steve Cavanagh’s Witness 8 opens with a murder. One witnessed by nanny and housemaid Ruby Johnson who knows the killer… and anonymously calls it in to the police. Open and shut case. But Ruby lied. An innocent man has been set up. And it’s up to ex-conman-turned-lawyer Eddie Flynn to find out the truth. Great characters, killer twists. Headline • A hit-and-run turns out, after the chief medical examiner discovers some puzzling inconsistencies, to be murder, with the victim severely tortured before death. It’s the first, but not last, murder of a twisted, clever killer, now on the radar of Detective Robert Hunter. The Death Watcher. It’s Chris Carter, so you know it’s going to be twisted, with a gut-wrenching twist. Simon and Schuster
English teacher Richard Boyle is one of the good guys. Always ready to help out. But he got more than he bargained for when he talks down a former student who arrives at school with a bomb strapped to his chest and scores to settle. Richard’s hailed a hero – but things turn nasty with blackmailers and drug dealers and accusations and dirty secrets. One good deed … followed by twist after twist. I Will Ruin You is a terrific suspense thriller by Linwood Barclay.
Carla’s father walked out of his family more than two decades ago … but sent letters to keep in touch. When his body is found, she discovers he’s been dead all along. Who, then, has been sending the letters? Add in a detective who’s just returned to work after treatment for a post-traumatic stress disorder, an armed break-in and someone determined to keep long-buried secrets from being discovered and you’ve a rip-roaring thriller in Karen Rose’s Buried Too Deep. Headline
In the luxury city of Riyadh, a billion dollar deal is about to go badly wrong. A lavish night out is about to end in murder. And the British government is about to be plunged into crisis. In Britain, the latest in a long line of peers lies dying … and his will triggers an inheritance with explosive consequences. Two deaths, continents apart. Both at the centre of a criminal’s plot for revenge. Revenge just got personal in Jeffrey Archer’s
An Eye for An Eye. Harper Collins
When local pub owner David jumps into the river to save a drowning stranger, he’s celebrated as a hero. His actions, and face, are broadcast on news stations throughout the country. For most people, new-found fame is celebrated. For David, it’s a death sentence. He and his wife, attorney Marcie, are suddenly experiencing all sorts of strange and unsettling experiences. Their dog goes missing from their secure yards. Everyday household items turns up in strange locations. Someone’s messing with them. Why? It appears David isn’t who everyone – including his wife – thinks he is. But then this mother-of-two discovers his secret life. And it might just cost them theirs! Lies He Told Me by James Patterson and David Ellis is a ripping good read. Century
Short but terrific
We love collections of short stories. Perfect for when you want a great read, but don’t have time to settle down with a book. Flights. Pool side. Waiting up for the teens to get home. 40 or so pages of clever, gripping stories. And let’s face it … what’s better than a Jeffery Deaver? A devious collection of 13 Jeffery Deaver short stories. With, said with some excitement, appearances from Lincoln Rhyme and Colter Shaw. Try not to read all 13 in Dead Ends at once! Harper Collins Publishers • And from Lee Child, creator of Jack Reacher, a collection of 20 cunningly plotted stories, with unexpected twists every which way. Safe Enough also has a bonus short story from Lee Child and Tess Gerritsen … Over Easy, where Reacher meets his match! Penguin
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