Crime & Thrillers

'Patricia's shoes. That's what I'd heard that morning, echoing outside of my bathroom window.'

After her best friend's mysterious death, Elizabeth Smith's picture-perfect life in the Memphis suburbs spirals out of control, causing her to hire an assistant to keep her world from hurtling off its axis. In comes the composed and elegant Brianna. But Elizabeth's obsession is catching, and Brianna quickly becomes accomplice rather than diversion.

Why? Because Brianna has questions, too...

She wants to know why the police killed her young Black son. Why someone in Elizabeth's neighbourhood saw him and thought to call the police. Who she can hold responsible for his death. As the two women hurtle towards the truth, it becomes clear that neither of them is who they claim to be.

A scorching debut that is as heartbreaking as it is thrilling, examining the intersection of race, class, female friendship, and the devastating consequences of everyday actions.

When a child's severed hand is found, DC Toks Ade and DS Philip Dean are put on the case. Thrown into a world of Nigerian traditional customs, ritual sacrifice, and international human trafficking, they must find the guilty parties before more children are lost and more limbs are found.
Jacob Ross, author of the Bone Readers Stella Oni brings a welcome new voice and an engagingly fresh perspective in her superbly executed debut crime novel, Deadly Sacrifice. A totally absorbing read.
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, author of TAIL OF THE BLUE BIRD An audacious debut novel...

Winnie M Li, author of DARK CHAPTER Deadly Sacrifice is a gripping read. It's a foray into the gritty underbelly of human trafficking and London's more deprived communities, where immigration and social stratification are interlinked in 21st-century Britain. A chilling tale, powered by a likeable Nigerian-British heroine.

From the winner of the 2021 Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature...

Determined to overrule the Nigerian President, members of the powerful secret society, The Sacred Order of the Universal Forces, led by Chief Donald Amechi and Christian Evangelist Chris Chuba, employ a terrorist cell to carry out attacks in Northern Nigeria under the guise of forming an Islamic state.

Adeline, Chuba's daughter, and young Donaldo Amechi, the only son of the Chief, are desperate to hide their love affair from their parents. When the Chief discovers the relationship, Evangelist Chuba is ordered to sacrifice his daughter. Adeline goes missing, but when it is revealed that the men sent to kill her never reached their target, Chuba and Amechi are haunted by what really happened to the young girl.

Set against the backdrop of Nigeria's ongoing terrorism tensions and upcoming elections, Satans and Shaitans is a powerful story about love, politics, power, religion, terrorism, and corruption.

Continuously available in print since 1969, this novel has become embedded in progressive anti-racist culture with wide circulation of the book and hotly debated film. A literary classic, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a strong comment on entrenched racial inequities in the United States in the late 1960s.

Dan Freeman, 'the spook who sat by the door', is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program after a white senator decries the lack of Black officers in the agency. The first Black man in the Central Intelligence Agency, Freeman is given a desk job. Despite excelling, promotions are hard to come by as the token black in the CIA. Deciding he's had enough, Freeman uses the tactics he learns in the CIA to foment violent rebellion in Chicago, in a mirror image of the coups wrought around the world by the Agency itself.

With its focus on the militancy that characterised the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, this is the story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy in ways that make the novel autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a reaction to the forces of oppression, this brilliant and funny satire by Sam Greenlee proves to be just as potent today as it was when it originally was published.

Simon Weekes becomes an overnight celebrity after his heroics during the 7/7 Bombings. But Simon can't afford the newfound fame and attention - he has too much to lose.

July 7, 2005. Simon Weekes is travelling on the London Underground when his tube carriage is wrecked by a bomb blast. Virtually everyone is killed and almost all the survivors are severely injured. Except for Simon.

Having quickly and calmly organised the small band of survivors out of the wreckage and to safety, word of Simon's heroics get out in the days following the bombing. Now under the full glare of the media spotlight, he becomes an overnight celebrity, hounded for interviews and regularly approached in the street by autograph hunters.

The only thing is, he doesn't want all the attention. He can't afford it. He has too much to lose.

When in service of money and power, is love a deadly game of an eye for an eye?

In this politically charged thriller, Leona, an internationally renowned Sudanese-Nigerian model was in her youth asked by her father to marry Akinola, a billionaire and son of his rival and kill him afterwards, to avenge her mother.

Now on her deathbed, Leona is driven to confess her sins and find absolution.

But how does one begin to do that? For as dastardly as the sin, it was an act of love, loyalty, disobedience, and perceived fairness.

Set against a background of real events, Colours of Hatred is a complex web of plots detailing how one woman moved from childhood through the fire and anvil of love, loss, longing, lust, and duty.... to become a woman whose life stands for mpre than another person's bitter machinations.

Paris,1958. An Algerian waiter at the famous restaurant La Tour d'Argent is convicted of the murder of two customers. As he is awaiting trial, his long-time friend Jerry Moloto helps an opportunistic and ambitious journalist build a case to defend him.
Through Jerry's testimony the reader discovers that the waiter is actually Pitso Motaung, a mixed race South African drafted to fight in the First World War. He is also one of the few remaining survivors of the SS Mendi tragedy, which saw the formidable warship sink off the coast of the Isle of Wight, killing 646 people, including many black South African soldiers. So how did a brave soldier become a criminal and will Pitso's name be cleared before it is too late?

Commemorating the 100th year anniversary of the sinking of the SS Mendi, Dancing the Death Drill is a timely novel about life and the many challenges it throws our way.

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.

Nephthys Kinwell is a taxi driver of sorts in Washington, DC, ferrying ill-fated passengers in a haunted car: a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River.

Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash-reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw-has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the "River Man," who somehow appears each time he goes there.

When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys's door one day bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face both the family she abandoned and what frightens her most when she looks in the mirror.

Creatures of Passage beautifully threads together the stories of Nephthys, Dash, and others both living and dead. Morowa Yejidé's deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington, D.C., filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim themselves.

Kayo is a young Tokyo housewife and mother. Outwardly, she is no different from other young mothers, but her secret sets her apart. She belongs to a kind of club, which involves luxury, beautiful clothes and accessories.

The club makes it possible for Kayo to escape her tedious life, to become someone else and to embrace a dazzling new world. But it quickly becomes an obsession, a drug, the way to both paradise and hell. Can she find her way out of the dark underworld of debt, lies and prostitution? Or is she doomed to exchange one form of loneliness for another?

A deeply absorbing novel about the "holes" that suddenly appear in women's lives, My Beautiful Shadow is a powerful cautionary tale about consumerism gone mad.

A writer in self-imposed exile in London receives a call from the Prime Minister of his former country, inviting him to return to write the Prime Minister's biography. As he embarks from his small flat in west London to the modern Caribbean island he once called home, he immediately finds himself thrust into a world of exceptional wealth, power, and corruption.

In the midst of this turmoil the writer falls deeply in love. As the love affair advances, the writer's passion for the island resurfaces, until the loss of a close friend propels him to make one final, potentially cataclysmic decision that will change everything.

From the winner of the 2021 Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature...

Determined to overrule the Nigerian President, members of the powerful secret society, The Sacred Order of the Universal Forces, led by Chief Donald Amechi and Christian Evangelist Chris Chuba, employ a terrorist cell to carry out attacks in Northern Nigeria under the guise of forming an Islamic state.

Adeline, Chuba's daughter, and young Donaldo Amechi, the only son of the Chief, are desperate to hide their love affair from their parents. When the Chief discovers the relationship, Evangelist Chuba is ordered to sacrifice his daughter. Adeline goes missing, but when it is revealed that the men sent to kill her never reached their target, Chuba and Amechi are haunted by what really happened to the young girl.

Set against the backdrop of Nigeria's ongoing terrorism tensions and upcoming elections, Satans and Shaitans is a powerful story about love, politics, power, religion, terrorism, and corruption.

A Dickensian tale of two young boys from opposite sides of the track who form a bond of brotherhood and friendship as they survive the streets of Lagos.

Temilola is a kind-hearted boy from the upper echelons of Nigerian society who wakes up alone in the middle of Lagos and discovers that he has lost his memory. He soon finds that this is the least of his problems, as he must now attempt to survive the dangerous streets of Lagos. Vipaar, who has been making a living as a hawker of random necessities on the streets of Lagos, finds Temilola and, after a violent first encounter, reluctantly takes him under his wing. They form a strong bond as they strive to make a meagre living selling mobile phone chargers to passing motorists on the dangerous highways of Lagos. The boys navigate the ruthless underbelly of Lagos and learn just how far they will go to protect themselves and each other. When tragedy strikes, their bond is broken and they are forced to separate from each other.

Will the two friends find each other again after they both face increasing brutality, pain and sorrow? Or will their destinies have diverged enough to tear them apart forever?

Simon Weekes becomes an overnight celebrity after his heroics during the 7/7 Bombings. But Simon can't afford the newfound fame and attention - he has too much to lose.

July 7, 2005. Simon Weekes is travelling on the London Underground when his tube carriage is wrecked by a bomb blast. Virtually everyone is killed and almost all the survivors are severely injured. Except for Simon.

Having quickly and calmly organised the small band of survivors out of the wreckage and to safety, word of Simon's heroics get out in the days following the bombing. Now under the full glare of the media spotlight, he becomes an overnight celebrity, hounded for interviews and regularly approached in the street by autograph hunters.

The only thing is, he doesn't want all the attention. He can't afford it. He has too much to lose.

A writer in self-imposed exile in London receives a call from the Prime Minister of his former country, inviting him to return to write the Prime Minister's biography. As he embarks from his small flat in west London to the modern Caribbean island he once called home, he immediately finds himself thrust into a world of exceptional wealth, power, and corruption.

In the midst of this turmoil the writer falls deeply in love. As the love affair advances, the writer's passion for the island resurfaces, until the loss of a close friend propels him to make one final, potentially cataclysmic decision that will change everything.

Set during Carnival in Haiti 1938, a young and beautiful woman named Hadriana drinks a mysterious potion on her wedding day and collapses at the altar. She is buried and later resurrected by an evil sorcerer and, as a zombie, enters the collective memory of her town of Jacmel. Hadriana's conversion serves as the inciting incident into an exploration of the strange and esoteric on the island, where Voodoo and Catholicism keep a symbiotic relationship, young women turn into zombies, young men turn into lascivious butterflies and nothing is quite what it seems.

Hadriana in All my Dreams is a frolic through mystery and eroticism that reveals vital truths about the nature of humanity.

Kayo is a young Tokyo housewife and mother. Outwardly, she is no different from other young mothers, but her secret sets her apart. She belongs to a kind of club, which involves luxury, beautiful clothes and accessories.

The club makes it possible for Kayo to escape her tedious life, to become someone else and to embrace a dazzling new world. But it quickly becomes an obsession, a drug, the way to both paradise and hell. Can she find her way out of the dark underworld of debt, lies and prostitution? Or is she doomed to exchange one form of loneliness for another?

A deeply absorbing novel about the "holes" that suddenly appear in women's lives, My Beautiful Shadow is a powerful cautionary tale about consumerism gone mad.

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.

Nephthys Kinwell is a taxi driver of sorts in Washington, DC, ferrying ill-fated passengers in a haunted car: a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River.

Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash-reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw-has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the "River Man," who somehow appears each time he goes there.

When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys's door one day bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face both the family she abandoned and what frightens her most when she looks in the mirror.

Creatures of Passage beautifully threads together the stories of Nephthys, Dash, and others both living and dead. Morowa Yejidé's deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington, D.C., filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim themselves.

Tackling conflicts both internal and external, The Blink That Killed the Eye is a moving reflection on how those rendered invisible by society struggle to regain control over their lives.

While each story stands affectingly on its own, Anthony Anaxagorou also weaves an affecting chronology - the lives of the characters overlapping and intertwining as they develop individually.

Exploring themes of invisibility, alienation, abuse, and loss, this brave and touching short story collection shows the poet-playwright at his soul-stirring best.