Sonja van der Westhuizen

The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou

29 December, 2023

Over the past year or two we’ve seen a flurry of book titles containing the names of women. These often fall into the quirky and offbeat or cosy categories. The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is not one of them. Quite the contrary. In 1954,…

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Sonja van der Westhuizen: Top five books of 2023

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

21 December, 2023

It’s been an interesting year for crime fiction trends. We’ve had it all, whether it’s the closed circle mystery novels with hen parties set a remote islands or mountain tops, the return to the gothic crime mystery a la Daphne Du Maurier, or crime fiction…

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The Wolf by Samuel Bjork

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

17 December, 2023

Translated by Charlotte Barslund — If you’ve been enjoying Samuel Bjork’s Munch and Krüger novels, The Wolf will take you back in time to their first case. If you’ve yet to discover them, then this prequel to I’m Travelling Alone is where their story begins….

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Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

12 December, 2023

Translated by David Warriner — An infamous manor house on a small Swedish island. A wealthy family with secrets. A string of unexplained deaths. In the first of a new series, French crime author Johana Gustawsson, who has Nordic roots, combines elements of the traditional…

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This is How We End Things by RJ Jacobs

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

23 October, 2023

The Breakfast Club meets The Secret History in mystery author RJ Jacobs’ new dark academia thriller. This is How We End Things, like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, takes place on an American college campus. In this case, it’s the fictional Hampden College in Shepard,…

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The American Boyfriend by Ivy Ngeow

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

2 October, 2023

For Phoebe Wong, exchanging the miserable British weather for the balmy Florida Keys with her new boyfriend for a few weeks seems like the ideal vacation, even though she only met Carter 11 months ago on LinkedIn and they haven’t spent much time together. He’s…

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The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

22 September, 2023

Translated by Sarah Death — She’s back. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is no longer the Lisbeth Salander we were introduced to 18 years ago in Stieg Larsson’s first Millennium novel. Now older and more responsible, Lisbeth is co-owner of Milton Security with her…

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Cult by Camilla Lackberg and Henrik Fexeus

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

7 September, 2023

Translated by Ian Giles — Bestselling Swedish author Camilla Lackberg teamed up with celebrity mentalist Henrik Fexeus to write Trapped, which was published last year. Now, the pair have returned with the second in the series featuring germophobe police officer, Mina Dabiri, and obsessive compulsive…

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The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou

Sonja van der Westhuizen: Top five books of 2023

The Wolf by Samuel Bjork

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

This is How We End Things by RJ Jacobs

The American Boyfriend by Ivy Ngeow

The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff

Cult by Camilla Lackberg and Henrik Fexeus

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