Hard Rain

Chaos, murder, and a hint of sizzling romance descend on East Africa in this electrifying page-turner of a mystery.

Journalist Alex Derksen’s new assignment in Tanzania should be easy, but he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the news. It starts when he meets Ranna, a beautiful photographer with something to hide. Alex stopped believing in love a long time ago, yet here in the middle of East Africa, it’s found him again.

Alex knows a thing or two about chaos—wherever he goes, it follows. When an IT billionaire washes up onshore after seasonal flooding, he finds himself at the center of an investigation with Ranna as the main suspect. It turns out she may have a good reason for hiding her past.

Wherever she goes, murder follows.

Alex should be used to these cat-and-mouse games, but this time it’s different. Should he listen to his heart and help Ranna hide the bloody trail leading to her? Or should he use his head and run for his life?

Irma Venter is a journalist and thriller writer. She loves traveling, Labradors, good coffee, excellent whiskey, and expensive chocolate—and not necessarily in that order. She writes books about strong women, interesting men, and that fascinating space between right and wrong. She lives in South Africa.

Elsa Silke grew up in Simondium, a village near Paarl in the Western Cape province of South Africa. She studied for a BA at the University of Stellenbosch, majoring in English and French. She later returned to the University of Stellenbosch for an honors degree in English and in 2004 was awarded a master’s degree in translation. Since then she has been working as a freelance editor and translator, chiefly of literary texts. She is a four-time winner of a South African Translators’ Institute prize for outstanding translation, each time in a different category or language combination: the fiction category in 2006 for Karel Schoeman’s This Life; the nonfiction category in 2009 for Chris Karsten’s Charlize: Life’s One Helluva Ride; the children’s literature category in 2012 for Linda Rode’s In the Never-Ever Wood; and the fiction category in 2015 for Paula Marais’s Shadow Self. She has two sons, a daughter, and five grandchildren, and she and her husband live in the Strand.