Reading Matters (week 039) 23 Sept 2025

Investigative journalist, now author, brave Jeff Wicks, has written a book that could shake the foundations of our corrupt government, The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran Had to Die (Tafelberg).

She was the chief director, financial accounting, in the Gauteng Department of Health in August 2021, when she was killed in a hail of bullets outside her home, after dropping off her daughter at school. Money was missing, R2.3 billion. She asked questions – too many for corrupt officials. She was murdered but who ordered the assassination?

Wicks has written a superb thriller that will enrage you as much as it engages you.

Diabetes is ravaging the world, and particularly SA, as obesity stalks our planet. Too much sugar, too many carbs. The late Dr Michael Mosley’s 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet (Octopus / Jonathan Ball) will reset your approach to food. You’ll lose weight – safely. An easy read with yummy recipes.

So, who killed Marilyn Monroe? James Patterson, one of the biggest-selling writers of all time, along with British author, journalist and broadcaster, Imogen Edwards-Jones, set out to find out. Did they? I’ve made up my mind. Read The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe (Century / Penguin Random House) and see if you can make up yours. Sad and riveting.

British author, Susan Lewis’ 50th bestseller, I Know it’s You (HarperCollins / Jonathan Ball) is set in the book publishing industry. As chapters in a compelling manuscript pile up on a publisher’s desk she’s increasingly convinced the story of a past scandal, trial and trauma that nearly destroyed her, are at the centre of the anonymous author’s script.

Are they?

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall