RED INK. By Angela Makholwa

Review by Muthoni Muiruri

(This work) starts with a date and a murder. The killer strangles her and then urinates on her and slices her breasts. Once done, he swears at her and cuts off her head!

This is how this book opens up and right off the bat, it gives you chills and leaves you paranoid, looking over your shoulder. Woe unto you, if like me, you start reading this at night! The descriptions of the crimes are so graphic and vivid, they place you right at the scenes. Reading this book, I felt like I had been transported to the set of Criminal Minds or CSI.

Lucy Khambule is a former journalist, turned Publicist. She lives in Jo’burg (South Africa) and her career as a Publicist is really taking off, save for the strenuous relationship with her once friend, now business partner Patricia. She lives a comfortable life and is a doting mother to her four year old son, Diseko. Five years ago while working as a crime reporter, she wrote to Napoleon Dingiswayo, the serial killer nicknamed The Butcher, asking if she could write a tell-all book about him. Writing a book is one of her life long dreams.

Fast forward to five years later, Lucy receives a called from C-Max Maximum Security prison and on the other end of the line is Napoleon Dingiswayo telling her that he received her letter and would like for her to visit him in prison so they can discuss the tell all book that he wants her to write. For Lucy, this is an intriguing offer and she agrees to it and this sets in motion a series of more murders and bizarre events – but with Dingiswayo in prison, who could be killing all these people around her? Did they catch the wrong serial killer?

This was Makholwa’s debut and it is a brilliant book. The crime/psychological thriller genre is not something I have seen often in African Literature. We definitely need to see more of these coming out of Africa…

(courtesy, goodreads)