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Book 4 in the PI Jade de Jong thriller series set in South Africa
At first, the case appears to be one of simple misadventure. Sonet van Rensburg, a base jumper, falls to her death while attempting to parachute off a newly built sixty-five-story Sandton skyscraper. But Sonet's jumping partner Chris Theron insists that this was no accident, and he hires private investigator Jade de Jong to uncover the truth.
Glad of the distraction from her conflicted and seemingly doomed relationship with police superintendent David Patel, Jade immerses herself in the case. She discovers that Sonet worked for a charity that helped impoverished communities become self-supporting farming units. Sonet's ex-husband, though, has nothing good to say about his wife or the work she has done. He tells Jade that Sonet's efforts were a useless waste of money and that the farming projects were not sustainable.
When Jade travels out to the Siyabonga community's farm in Limpopo, hoping to prove him wrong, she finds it not just abandoned but razed to the ground. Digging deeper for answers about where the residents went and why they left their fertile valley, Jade finds out that one man died from a terminal illness. Then, to her concern, she learns about more sicknesses and more deaths... a fatal but unknown disease that swept through the entire community.
Jade then discovers that Sonet's sister Teniel, a journalist, was investigating this mystery too. Teniel had discovered that one woman and her son had survived the plague and had left the area, and she was doing her best to track that woman down so she could hear her story.
But now Teniel is missing, and Jade will have to race against time in order to find her. A deadly harvest has been gathered in, and the only person who knows the real truth about it has been forced to become collateral in its trade. Praise for the Jade de Jong series:
"A white-knuckle thriller with an utterly chilling finale." ─Tess Gerritsen, author of the Rizzoli & Isles series
"Jade de Jong is a heroine to cherish: tough, passionate, and packed with enough flaws to keep her interesting." ─Sophie Littlefield, author of A Bad Day for Sorry
"Remarkable." ─The New York Times Book Review Jassy Mackenzie was born in Rhodesia and moved to South Africa when she was eight years old. She is the author of three previous Jade de Jong novels, Random Violence, Stolen Lives, and The Fallen, and she edits and writes for the annual publication Best of South Africa. Chapter 1
Magdalena Eckhardt loved nothing better than people watching. In fact, she prided herself on being an astute observer. Her book club friends had often commented that she could read them as well as if they were one of the Lisa Gardner novels that circulated within the group. Certainly, she had a keen eye for body language and a memory for detail. She was also blessed with a fertile imagination that allowed her to fill in the gaps, to her own satisfaction at least, where observation alone failed to give the full story.
Now, she was comfortably ensconced in the embrace of one of the sought-after armchairs at Chez Chic, the Sandton coffee shop with a legendary position on the corner of Nelson Mandela Square, just a few metres away from the massive bronze statue of Madiba himself. Sipping on her soy decaf latte, Magdalena was happily appraising her fellow patrons while she waited for her two-thirty appointment with the Botox specialist in the nearby Medical Mews.
One couple in particular had caught her attention today, if only for the fact that she couldn't quite work them out. They were definitely not stereotypical Sandton shoppers.
'Stereotypical!' she remembered one of the younger members of her book club exclaiming at their last get-together. 'That's such a cool word! Such a Magdalena word, don't you agree? Stereotypical …. I love it!'
At first, the case appears to be one of simple misadventure. Sonet van Rensburg, a base jumper, falls to her death while attempting to parachute off a newly built sixty-five-story Sandton skyscraper. But Sonet's jumping partner Chris Theron insists that this was no accident, and he hires private investigator Jade de Jong to uncover the truth.
Glad of the distraction from her conflicted and seemingly doomed relationship with police superintendent David Patel, Jade immerses herself in the case. She discovers that Sonet worked for a charity that helped impoverished communities become self-supporting farming units. Sonet's ex-husband, though, has nothing good to say about his wife or the work she has done. He tells Jade that Sonet's efforts were a useless waste of money and that the farming projects were not sustainable.
When Jade travels out to the Siyabonga community's farm in Limpopo, hoping to prove him wrong, she finds it not just abandoned but razed to the ground. Digging deeper for answers about where the residents went and why they left their fertile valley, Jade finds out that one man died from a terminal illness. Then, to her concern, she learns about more sicknesses and more deaths... a fatal but unknown disease that swept through the entire community.
Jade then discovers that Sonet's sister Teniel, a journalist, was investigating this mystery too. Teniel had discovered that one woman and her son had survived the plague and had left the area, and she was doing her best to track that woman down so she could hear her story.
But now Teniel is missing, and Jade will have to race against time in order to find her. A deadly harvest has been gathered in, and the only person who knows the real truth about it has been forced to become collateral in its trade. Praise for the Jade de Jong series:
"A white-knuckle thriller with an utterly chilling finale." ─Tess Gerritsen, author of the Rizzoli & Isles series
"Jade de Jong is a heroine to cherish: tough, passionate, and packed with enough flaws to keep her interesting." ─Sophie Littlefield, author of A Bad Day for Sorry
"Remarkable." ─The New York Times Book Review Jassy Mackenzie was born in Rhodesia and moved to South Africa when she was eight years old. She is the author of three previous Jade de Jong novels, Random Violence, Stolen Lives, and The Fallen, and she edits and writes for the annual publication Best of South Africa. Chapter 1
Magdalena Eckhardt loved nothing better than people watching. In fact, she prided herself on being an astute observer. Her book club friends had often commented that she could read them as well as if they were one of the Lisa Gardner novels that circulated within the group. Certainly, she had a keen eye for body language and a memory for detail. She was also blessed with a fertile imagination that allowed her to fill in the gaps, to her own satisfaction at least, where observation alone failed to give the full story.
Now, she was comfortably ensconced in the embrace of one of the sought-after armchairs at Chez Chic, the Sandton coffee shop with a legendary position on the corner of Nelson Mandela Square, just a few metres away from the massive bronze statue of Madiba himself. Sipping on her soy decaf latte, Magdalena was happily appraising her fellow patrons while she waited for her two-thirty appointment with the Botox specialist in the nearby Medical Mews.
One couple in particular had caught her attention today, if only for the fact that she couldn't quite work them out. They were definitely not stereotypical Sandton shoppers.
'Stereotypical!' she remembered one of the younger members of her book club exclaiming at their last get-together. 'That's such a cool word! Such a Magdalena word, don't you agree? Stereotypical …. I love it!'