Malla Nunn

From Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award winner and Edgar Award nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and a powerful story of how friendship saves and heals. Now in paperback. Fifteen-year-old Amandla's mother has always been strange. For starters, she's a white woman living in Sugar Town, one of South Africa's infamous shanty towns. She won't tell anyone, not even Amandla, about her past. And she has visions, including ones that promise the return of Amandla's father--as if he were a prince in a fairy tale. But their difficult (even in the best of times) life in Sugar Town is no fairy tale and Amandla knows the truth--her father is long gone. He's just another mystery and missing piece of her mother's past and one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give them strange looks--that and the fact that Amandla is Black and her mother is not. Lately her mother has been acting even more strangely, so when Amandla finds a mysterious address at the bottom of her mother's purse along with a large amount of cash, she decides it's finally time to get answers. As she confronts devastating family secrets and even the devil himself, she'll need her best friends at her side, her fellow Sugar Town Queens, if she hopes to help heal a pain that has lasted a generation.

This heartrending YA tale set in a Swaziland boarding school and featuring an unlikely friendship between girls of different castes won the LA Times Book Prize and is now available in paperback.Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn't pray and defies teachers' orders. But as they share a copy of Jane Eyre, Lottie's gruff exterior and honesty grows on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and along the way learn the true meaning of friendship.

When an Afrikaans police captain is murdered in a small South African country town, Detective Emmanuel Cooper must navigate his way through the labyrinthine racial and social divisions that split the community. And as the National Party introduces the laws to support the system of apartheid, Emmanuel struggles – much like Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko – to remain a good man in the face of astonishing power. In a considered but very commercial novel, Malla Nunn combines a compelling plot with a thoughtful and complex portrayal of a fascinating period of history, illustrating the human desires that drive us all, regardless of race, colour or creed. A Beautiful Place To Die is the first of a planned series of novels featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper. ‘A terrific page-turning debut. Clever and multi-layered in its portrayal of the people and landscape of apartheid South Africa. I loved it’ Minette Walters ‘Remarkable’ Literary Review 'A first crime novel of considerable power ' Sydney Morning Herald

Set in the corrupt, unforgiving world of apartheid South Africa, this novel in the Detective Emmanuel Cooper series follows Cooper as he faces a test of loyalty and friendship. Five days before Christmas, Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper sits at his desk at the Johannesburg major crimes squad, ready for his holiday in Mozambique. A call comes in: a respectable white couple has been assaulted and left for dead in their bedroom. The couple's teenage daughter identifies the attacker as Aaron Shabalala-- the youngest son of Zulu Detective Constable Samuel Shabalala--Cooper's best friend and a man to whom he owes his life. The Detective Branch isn't interested in evidence that might contradict their star witness's story, especially so close to the holidays. Determined to ensure justice for Aaron, Cooper, Shabalala, and their trusted friend Dr. Daniel Zweigman hunt for the truth. Their investigation uncovers a violent world of Sophiatown gangs, thieves, and corrupt government officials who will do anything to keep their dark world intact.

South Africa, 1953. The National Party’s rigid race laws have split the nation and a gruelling poverty grips many on the edges of its society. When former Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper stumbles across the body of a child, Jolly Marks, at the Durban docks, he can little imagine what the discovery will lead him to. Soon Cooper finds himself under suspicion for not only Jolly’s murder, but others as well. The only way he can clear his name is to find out who the real killer was – and he’s got 48 hours in which to do it. His investigations will lead him into Durban’s murky underworld of pimps, prostitutes, strange and sinister preachers, and those on the wrong side of the race laws. For there is more to Jolly’s barbaric murder than Cooper could ever have realized . . . 'One reads this superior sequel to an outstanding debut feeling moral outrage and genuine excitement, which makes it an unusually intense experience’ Daily Telegraph

The second in a crime series set in 1950's South Africa when apartheid laws were first introduced, Detective Emmanuel Cooper now returns to face murder, passion, and corrupt South African politics. Emmanuel Cooper's life has an "ex" through it: ex-soldier, ex-detective sergeant, and ex-white man. He now works undercover surveillance on the seedy Durban docks to make a living, documenting police corruption for his old boss. All of that changes when he discovers the body of a brutally murdered young errand boy, forcing Emmanuel out of the shadows. He decides that he has no choice but to elude the police in order to conduct his own unofficial investigation. But after two more identical murders, Emmanuel becomes the police department's prime suspect. Finding the serial killer is even more urgent than before. He dives into the Durban underworld for answers and finds the murders are part of something bigger than he could have imagined, and is soon deep into the politics within South Africa. Under the pressure of new racial segregation laws Emmanuel must find the killer before the Durban police pin the crimes on him. Full of suspense and an unraveling mystery, Nunn offers a glimpse into South African politics during the 1950s and living under the racial segregation laws enforced by the National Party.