Simon Vance

Emma Le Roux hires a personal security expert when her believed-dead brother is named as a suspect in the murders of five people, a situation that exposes her to political tensions, corruption, and life-threatening violence.

"[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...

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 and founder of Alibi, an internet service that provides unfaithful partners with sophisticated cover stories to hide their affairs. Meanwhile, Benny Griessel is called to the scene of a murder-suicide involving a former colleague,...

Someone in Cape Town has chosen a conspicuous murder weapon--a century-old German handgun, with ancient bullets to match, bullets that tear through flesh and bone. The killer has a preferred method: one shot to the head and one shot to the chest, leaving a rapidly rising number of dead. For Captain Mat Joubert, this might be the last chance to prove that his life's slow spiral will not pull him under and sink him at last.

Investigating the unusual murder of an antiques dealer, former police officer Zet van Heerden struggles to overcome past demons and the uncertain loyalties of people affiliated with the case in order to identify the killer. --

Six-foot five-inch Thobela "Tiny" Mpayipheli was once a feared assassin and freedom fighter, trained by the Stasi and KGB. In post-apartheid South Africa, he's happily working in a garage. But Tiny’s quiet domestic life is interrupted by a desperate plea from the daughter of a trusted old friend: he’s being held hostage after taking an incriminating hard drive and needs help. Tiny’s old training kicks in, and as he races across the South African...