BOOKMARKS

BELIEVE ME Eddie Izzard Loot.co.za (R347) Michael Joseph

EDDIE Izzard is a comedian, actor, writer, activist and runner.

For that latter string to his bow, among his other accomplishments, last year Izzard ran 27 marathons in 27 days across South Africa, in honour of Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison – an extraordinary feat by any criteria.

Eddie Izzard lost his mother when he was six.

From that life-affecting start, he has risen to become a star of comedy and drama, and he can currently be seen in the film Victoria & Abdul in which he delivers a fine cameo as the Prince of Wales.

His memoir, Believe Me, is well written, very readable and covers an eventful life. It is told with much warmth and tonguein-cheek humour

THE BLIND A F Brady Loot.co.za (R229) HQ

THIS is an intriguing debut from a New York-based psychotherapist. Her protagonist, Samantha James, is a psychiatrist whose personal life is a mess, but whose professional life is beyond reproach.

She has built her reputation on dealing with the most difficult people and she never rejects a challenge.

Enter Richard, a patient with a daunting mental history. Sam takes on his case, only to find that he seems to be sane. He may act obsessively at times, but there is no madness she can identify.

What is the secret? Is Richard hiding his true nature so cleverly that even she cannot detect it? This is the question that sustains a gripping story to its fascinating conclusion.

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DON’T LET GO Harlan Coben Loot.co.za (R357) Century

NAP Dumas is a French-born small-town cop in New Jersey, where he is also known for handing out summary justice to men who abuse their mates.

Yet he is haunted by his past. Fifteen years ago, his teenage brother, Leo, and his girlfriend were found dead beside the railroad tracks in what was thought to have been a suicide pact.

Those deaths come back to life when a police officer is killed and the fingerprints of Nap’s former girlfriend, who disappeared on the night of the suicides, are found at the scene of the officer’s murder.

Add a mysterious missile control site with possibly nuclear capabilities behind Nap and Leo’s school and you have an addictive roller coaster ride but with a distinctly moral heart.

THE CUBAN AFFAIR Nelson DeMille Loot.co.za (R379) Sphere

WIDELY acknowledged as one of the greatest thriller writers of our times, DeMille’s mastery of the genre is underlined again here. The charismatic central character this time is Daniel Graham “Mac” MacCormick, a 35-year-old American Afghanistan veteran, now captaining a deep-sea fishing boat out of Key West in Florida.

The boat is mortgaged until Mac is approached by a Miamibased Cuban lawyer with a proposition that could earn him $2 million. The idea is to smuggle back to the US more than $60m worth of assets that were hidden in a cave in Cuba after Castro came to power. There is a beautiful Cuban woman involved, whose grandfather assembled the treasure trove that is to be liberated.