The Weight of Skin by Alastair Bruce
‘You would not think it to look at you, but your voice, when you use it: akin to a god’s. You must be careful what you do with it.’
Exiled Jacob Kitara takes in injured compatriots and nurses them in a boarded-up building. Social unrest has emptied the streets of London, movement into and out of the country has been suspended, and those who remain are in hiding.
When a young man makes his appearance, insisting that he is Jacob’s son –a man presumed dead, torn from Jacob’s life by war and guilt over the fate of the boy’s mother –Jacob is driven to anger.
But can this stranger offer Jacob a chance to reach back to a different continent, to the foot of Africa from where he has been banished, to atone for the past?
The Weight of Skin is a poignant tale of personal and political responsibility, and of the intricate narratives of family and nationality that bind us. The Weight of Skin by Alastair Bruce is available from R270, *Penguin Random House.
The River Murders by James Patterson
HIDDEN: Rejected by the Navy SEALs, Mitchumis content to be his small town’s unofficial private eye, until his beloved 14-year-old cousin is abducted. Now he’ll call on every lethal skill to track her down –but nothing is what it seems…
MALICIOUS: Mitchum’sbrother has been charged with murder. Nathaniel swears he didn’t kill anyone, but word on the street is that he was involved with the victim’s wife. Now, Navy SEAL dropout Mitchumwill break every rule to expose the truth –even if it destroys the people he loves.
MALEVOLENT: Mitchumhas never been more desperate. One by one his loved ones have become victims of carefully staged attacks. There’s only one way to stop the ruthless mastermind intent on destroying everyone around him –to go on the most dangerous hunt of his life. The River Murders by James Patterson is available from R175, *Penguin Random House.
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn’t be more different.
Then one of them goes missing.
In a Philadelphia neighborhoodrocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the viseof addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don’t speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.
Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey’s district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit –and her sister –before it’s too late.
Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters’ childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story. Long Bright River by Liz Moore is available at R290, *Penguin Random House.
