Salamander Cotton, Jacob Tshabalala

A dark, chilling mystery set in the brooding, atmospheric lands of South Africa

In his debut thriller, Bloody Harvests, Richard Kunzmann gave readers a glimpse into the turbulent South African landscape. Now Detective Inspector Jacob Tshabalala and his former colleague Harry Mason return with another beautifully spellbinding thriller combining murder, revenge, greed, and the classic struggle between good and evil.

A wealthy ex-mining boss has been found beaten and burned to death at his home in suburban Johannesburg. His estranged wife, however, does not seem particularly surprised by this cold-blooded murder, but keeps insisting that the killer will be found in the Northern Cape, where the victim owned a farm with a dark secret. It's a remote and desolate landscape of extreme poverty, burdened with a bleak history as an asbestos-mining community.

When Tshabalala persuades Mason to investigate a link between the man's murder and the disappearance of his daughter thirty years before, Harry has no way of knowing he will soon be plunged into a menacing world of rumored supernatural attacks, corporate cover-ups, ruthless hijackers, and bitter vengeance.

Kunzmann returns with a strong force, capturing the bitter landscape and people of Johannesburg and beyond--captivating readers with his plot twists, dramatic action, and engaging characters. Salamander Cotton is a representation of poverty and a portrait of a country whose values of freedom and justice are only just emerging.