Reading Matters (week 042) 14 Oct 2025

The Scissors murder in the 1970s set SA abuzz. Marlene Lehnberg (18) organised the killing of her 40-something lover’s wife. Now talented author David Cornwell has reimagined that infamous crime in his compelling novel, Hell of a Country (Kwela). I caught up with David at the Love Books launch where passion and politics rippled through the room.

Dr Anne Biccard has produced her fourth book set in a Johannesburg hospital’s emergency department and like the other three, One Call Away (Jacana) it pulses with laughter, death and well…. emergencies. Riveting reading.

Kate Price, PhD, was drugged and trafficked for sex by her Appalachian father when still a little girl. She spent half her life trying to establish what happened to her and captures her journey in This Happened to Me (Macmillan). Today Price works in Boston, United States, concentrating her formidable intellect on helping kids used for child sex. A surprisingly exquisitely written book.

I end off with a review of the delightful children’s book, Neo’s Invisible Blanket (Pan Macmillan Children’s Books) by Salamina Mosese. Colourfully illustrated by Subi Bosa.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall