Two seemingly unrelated car accidents. The same night. The same stretch of twistng valley road.
A SHORT LIFE
by Nicky Greenwall
Penguin Random House South Africa, 2024
(via The Lennon-Ritchie Agency)

Nick’s best friend Adam has had an accident while drunk driving. Nick wants to protect him from prosecution and must convincehis wife Franky to keep the car crash a secret. But when Franky learns that her best friend was killed on the same night in aseparate accident, she is torn between supporting her husband or her best friend’s widower. Set in Cape Town, the pacy, twistythriller is told from multiple perspectives. For fans of Liane Moriarty’s; Nine Perfect Strangers and Big Little Lies; HarrietLane’s Her; and Liz Feldman’s hit Netlix series Dead to Me.
Nicky Greenwall is a former broadcaster, entertainment journalist and television producer. Her multi-award-nominated documentary series The Beautiful People – which tracks the lives of a group of foreign fashion models working in Cape Town – has now sold in the UK, Australia, Asia, Europe, Canada, The Middle East and Africa. As a print journalist Nicky has contributed to Elle, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, Glamour, Good Taste and The Sunday Times. A SHORT LIFE is her debut novel. She lives in Cape Town with her husband Robin Fryer, and their two children – Georgie and Riley.

Nikki Serafino is enjoying the sunset from her boat in her beloved port city of Naples, Italy when she discovers the body of a strangled man in the warm waters of the bay. As an investigator with a security unit, Nikki is certainly no stranger to violence, but this case grows complicated when the autopsy reveals that the victim has been boiled. And the next day, Nikki comes across another dead body in an abandoned car – surely two bodies in as many days is no coincidence. While local police suspect a lowlevel crime syndicate is responsible, Nikki isn’t so sure. But when she delves into the case, her search for answers brings her face to face with the possibility that those closest to her are living darker lives than she wants to admit. To catch a killer, Nikki must untangle the cords of past and present that keep her and her family vulnerable to Naples’ dangerous sides.
Iggy Guerra is out of prison, but his homecoming is anything but smooth. His beloved mother is gone, his grief-stricken father, Armando, is deep in debt, and they are about to lose the butcher shop that has been in their family for generations. Iggy must earn his father’s lost trust in order to save La Carnicería Guerra from the threats imposed by a new rival business, a vigilante activist, and big-game hunter Orin, who has dragged Armando into his dangerous money-making schemes deep in the Everglades, where more than secrets are buried. Iggy will wrestle with the beauty and the danger of the place he calls home as he tries to save his family—without losing himself forever. Sharp as a butcher knife gleaming in the Miami sun, Alejandro Nodarse’s BLOOD IN THE CUT opens onto a deeply personal vision of the streets and swamps of Miami, where the roots are crooked but strong as mangroves.
How long can you hide the truth?