A selection of the books that landed on Vivien’s desk. Some of these books may be reviewed later.

Good Cop, Bad Cop – confessions of a reluctant policeman, by Andrew Brown (Zebra Press)

Andrew Brown is an award-winning novelist and an advocate. But he has another, somewhat unlikely, identity – he is also a member of the SA Police reserve. This memoir of his 20 years as a reservist opens with him sitting in a cell at Pollsmoor, aged just 19, being held in solitary confinement by the apartheid authorities. And it morphs into Brown, 30 years later, huddling with fellow-cops under a makeshift shelter in Imizamo Yethu, armed with a shotgun and waiting for an attack by a horde of angry residents. He has worked across the Cape Peninsula, being shot at, arresting drug pushers, working in a murder investigation and helping to keep the peace during last year’s UCT protests. Along with the skop, skiet en donder, this is a thoughtful look at the role of the police in South Africa today.

Dark Forces, by Stephen Leather (Hodder & Stoughton)

This Spider Shepherd thriller pits Shepherd against an IS sniper. “A foreign war is about to come to Britain and not even an army can stop it” says the cover blurb. Shepherd witnesses the escape of the sniper from a targeted missile strike in Syria. Then, just weeks later, he comes across the shooter in a grubby London flat. Shepherd, posing as a hitman, is collecting evidence to target a violent south London gang. And then his work as an undercover agent for MI5 comes slap up against a major terror operation. “The clock is ticking and only Spider stands between us and Armageddon...”

Justice Served? – the trial and conviction of Bob Hewitt, by Jamaine Krige (Zebra Press)

Author Jamaine Krige is a Port Elizabeth journalist who covered Bob Hewitt’s trial. She says her book is not an exposé; it is a comprehensive look at a trial that shook the local and international sporting community.

It has been a feature of the past decade or so that a number of formerly respected people – Bill Cosby, Bob Hewitt, Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Capetonian Glynn Day – have been shown to have feet of clay.

Now convicted, Hewitt is in jail, and a good thing, too!

But are there many people who really want to read a detailed account of a trial that has already had wide media coverage?

Buy these books at loot.co.za by scanning the QR codes with your smartphone.