Snyckers manages to keep up the suspense

and who alone has access to the biohazard chamber where the viruses are stored, is left struggling to contain the outbreak as a vicious storm descends on the station.

This of course prevents any help from getting through to this “loneliest outpost on earth”.

Snyckers’s Now Following You , which was long-listed for the Sunday Times Literary Award last year, tells of a social media addict whose tendency to post everything about her life gets her into trouble. In doing so, the book highlights the power social media gives to stalkers and others who intend harm. It had me eagerly anticipating Snyckers’s next book, and I was not disappointed. — Julia Butcher TV ACTOR Simon Bruinders puts the reader on an emotional roller-coaster ride back in time in this work of fiction.

His book is dedicated to his family and to “all the people who suffered under the Group Areas Act and other forms of oppression”.

The story begins back in 1939 and traces the life of woodworker Abraham de Bruyn, who meets and falls in love with Stella.

But the government of the time move them from a farm beneath the Outeniqua Mountains to The Island in George, an area reserved for those of the “coloured” race.

When war breaks out, Abraham and his brother Stanley, as soldiers promised land by the Smuts government, enlist and travel to North Africa where they serve as drivers.

They are accompanied by Kobus Venter, a white Afrikaner who has befriended them despite opposition from his father, Big Koos, a staunch Nationalist.

However, Abraham is wounded in battle and returns home. After the war, with no land forthcoming, the De Bruyns work hard, raising their families.

Meanwhile, pride of place in Abraham’s home is a magnificent sideboard he had built which is admired by all.

When The Island is rezoned as a white area, the De Bruyns are forced to move yet again under the Group Areas Act, this time to a new housing estate with small, box-like houses.

The sideboard has to be sold as it is too large for the new house.

The De Bruyns have to virtually start their lives all over again. Things become emotional and the story bears witness to the resilience of the human spirit.

However, there’s a lovely ending in this eye-opening, easy-to-read narrative which has also been translated into Dutch. – Peter Martin STEPHEN Leather is a successful British author who specialises in spy thrillers. His hero is M15 agent Daniel Shepherd, known as Spider, a family man who is unafraid to go undercover and, if necessary, kill.

In Black Ops M15 controller Charlie Button turns rogue and uses government resources to obtain revenge on the men who killed her husband. Spider has to take Button down but more danger lurks.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is about to visit Britain, but a father who lost his son in the downed Malaysian aeroplane over Ukraine holds Putin responsible and is out for revenge.

There’s also an assassin on the loose, hot on the trail of two Irish terrorists.

In Dark Forces, Shepherd works undercover posing as a ruthless hitman while he gathers evidence against two brothers who run a violent London gang.

He also comes up against an experienced Syrian sniper who has killed a number of army officers, among other enemies of Syria. The sniper is part of a cleverly planned plot to kill hundreds of innocent spectators at a sporting event in London.The book ends in an exciting climax and to reveal more will spoil things for avid readers. Both books are highly recommended. –– Peter Martin