July 2017 Fiction & Entertainment Lead Titles

Blessed Are the Dead: An Emmanuel Cooper Mystery Malla Nunn

In the third gripping instalment of Malla Nunn’s acclaimed crime series, the body of a beautiful 17-year-old Zulu girl, Amahle, is found covered in wildflowers on a hillside in the Drakensberg Mountains, halfway between her father’s compound and the enormous white-owned farm where she worked. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper and Zulu Detective Constable Samuel Shabalala are sent to the desolate landscape to investigate. They soon discover that Amahle’s life was woven into both the black and white communities in ways they could never have imagined …

‘A disturbing book with a morally compelling hero.’ Booklist

‘Gripping and thoughtful … Malla Nunn brilliantly combines character and fair play clues.’ Publishers Weekly, starred review

‘Historical hindsight may make readers a bit more self-congratulatory about recognizing the evils of apartheid, but it won’t help them see around the curves Nunn has plotted or rise above her insight into the enduring dilemmas of her separate-and-unequal world.’ Kirkus Reviews