The Trees
Percival Everett’s The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist white townsfolk.
The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.
The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot.
As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried.
In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, and does so in a fast-paced style that ensures the reader can’t look away. The Trees is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance from an author with his finger on America’s pulse.
Our Poisoned Land: Living in the Shadows of Zuma’s Keepers
When he took office in 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed new heads of law enforcement agencies and formed the Investigating Directorate within the National Prosecuting Authority to bring fraudsters and looters to book.
Yet, five years on, crime has spiked, most of the looters still walk free, and the law enforcement agencies are in shambles. What went wrong? Once again, Jacques Pauw delves deep to find answers.
Among his shocking findings are that top police officers who had a hand in state capture are still ensconced in the Hawks and police Crime Intelligence; there is a cabal of state-capture prosecutors within the NPA; a police minister is cavorting with a convicted drug smuggler; and South Africa’s “own Guptas” are living in the lap of luxury after the case against them “disappeared”.
In his compelling narrative style, Pauw picks up where he left off in The Presidentʼs Keepers to expose the shadows, deceit and debauchery of Zumaʼs cronies.
