"[A]t a guest house in the beautiful Franschhoek wine valley, a famous English mathematician is kidnapped and his two bodyguards are killed. It's clearly a professional hit, and the spent shell cases offer a chilling clue: Each is engraved with the head of a spitting cobra. Meanwhile, in Cape Town, a skilled young thief is using his talents to put his sister through college. Then one day he picks the wrong pocket, grabbing the wallet of a young American...

Early on a May morning in the depth of South Africa's winter, a woman's naked body, washed in bleach, is discovered on a stone wall beside the N2 highway at the top of Sir Lowry's Pass, some thirty-five miles from Cape Town. The local investigation stalls, so the case is referred to Captain Benny Griessel and his colorful partner Vaughn Cupido of the Hawks--the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations. The woman proves to be Alicia Lewis, an...

A week before Christmas, a young photographer discovers a plastic-wrapped corpse amidst the sand dunes north of Cape Town. It doesn't take long for the police to identify the body as that of Ernst Richter--the tech whiz founder of Alibi, an Internet service that provides unfaithful partners with sophisticated cover stories to hide their affairs. Assigned to the case is lead detective Benny Griessel--but unfortunately, his two years of sobriety have...

This is a new reading of Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law. Set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s, Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor, and his son, Absalom. Written with keen compassion and understanding, the novel powerfully evokes the experience of a land and a people torn by racial injustice. Paton said of his book: “It is a song...

Describes the life of the South African president and revolutionary, from his childhood and his work as a peaceful protestor to his twenty-seven-year imprisonment, his election as president, and his work to end apartheid in South Africa.

Zolani, who lives in a rural black homeland in South Africa, goes with his mother to visit his Grandma Zindzi.

Naledi and her brother Noli are as different as day and night. Naledi is a young girl who loves the sun, and on sunny days she takes pictures of her beautiful home in Capetown, South Africa with her favorite camera; but her older Noli prefers the moon, and loves to gaze at the stars at night with his telescope. It's only when Grandpa Outa tells them a story about how the stars were born, that Naledi and Noli realize they aren't so different after...

"When Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa, she knows that she does not love the man she is to marry there--her fiance Edward, whom she has not seen for five years. Isolated and estranged in a small town in the harsh Karoo desert, her only real companions are her diary and her housemaid, and later the housemaid's daughter, Ada. When Ada is born, Cathleen recognizes in her someone she can love and respond...

In this book, readers will learn about the unique and defining features of South Africa. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text will engage young readers as they learn more about the key details of the country, including geography, climate, culture, and resources. Compelling questions encourage further inquiry. Includes reading tips for teachers and parents, a map, quick facts, a table of contents, a glossary, and an index.

A police officer is shot dead; another the next day. Then the South African police receive an email threatening an additional cop killed each day until a cold case is solved. Inspector Benny Griessel is charged with reopening the file on the murder of Hanneke Sloet, an ambitious lawyer stabbed to death in her luxury apartment. As the pressure mounts, can Bennie solve the case-- and stay sober?