Book picks similar to
The House Called Mbabati by Samantha Ford


samantha-ford
3-star
africa
mysteries-and-thrillers

Liverpool Lou


Lyn Andrews - 1991
    Babsey makes sure that her family doesn't mix with the rougher people in the neighbourhood - she considers herself a cut above the local community. When her niece Louisa needs a home - her mother is dead, and her father at sea - Babsey does her duty and brings the girl into the household.But Louisa doesn't quite fit in with Babsey's plans. Although life under Aunt Babsey's roof is comfortable, Louisa is acutely aware of the desperate poverty around her. And, as she grows up into a thoughtful young woman, the harsh realities of love and betrayal, war and death, make her determined to find her own way. Louisa will eventually be made famous throughout her city - known for ever as Liverpool Lou. And she might just find love along the way...

Once Upon a White Man


Graham Atkins - 2012
    A gripping love declaration to Africa with the troubles of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe as background, the real protagonist of this book is Africa with all her wonders and horrors. "Highly recommended for lovers of the continent, especially those longing for a well-balanced and honest insider’s account of recent African history (B. Pataki 2013) "

Crossing the Congo: Over Land and Water in a Hard Place


Mike Martin - 2016
    Traversing 2,500 miles of the toughest terrain on the planet in a twenty-five year-old Land Rover, they faced repeated challenges, from kleptocracy and fire ants to non-existent roads and intense suspicion from local people. Through imagination and teamwork -- including building rafts and bridges, conducting makeshift surgery in the jungle and playing tribal politics -- they got through. But the Congo is raw, and the journey took an unexpected psychological toll on them all. Crossing the Congo is an offbeat travelogue, a story of friendship and what it takes to complete a great journey against tremendous odds, and an intimate look into one of the world's least-developed and most fragile states, told with humor and sensitivity.

Living The Best Day Ever


Hendri Coetzee - 2013
    

Never Ever After (Quotable Romance Book 2)


Lucy McConnell - 2017
     Meet Beau Mckay, Atlanta’s blockbuster actor and self-proclaimed player. He’s known for his tough-guy roles and cleft chin but there’s more to Beau than a pretty face and taut muscles as Cindy Knight is about to find out. In an effort to save her family’s production studio, Cindy makes a bold move and sneaks in to Beau’s house party to deliver the script she wrote.  Beau rescues her from a group of good ol’ boys up to no good who throw Cindy into the pool before being kicked out of the party. Through a series of mishaps, amazing kisses, and an incident with a stuffed bear, the two find an everlasting connection. However, Beau must rise up to the best inside himself and Cindy has to redefine her vision of family or they’ll never find their ever after.

Promised to the Beastly Earl (The Hamptons Search for Love #2)


Charlotte Darcy - 2016
    Cecilia Hampton is a kind and gentle soul who loves nothing more that tending to her garden and making up potions from her herbs. Now she is to marry a man she has never met and her heart is breaking. Yet there is hope, Hunter agrees to a most daring proposal. They will pretend to court. Can Hunter and Cecilia thwart the power-hungry Percival Cunningham? Will their plan work and will they ever find true love? Promised to the Beastly Earl is a Clean and Wholesome Regency Historical Romance scroll up now to read for just $0.99 or FREE on Kindle Unlimited. For a free Introduction to this story join my newsletter here http://eepurl.com/bSNOLP and receive The Shallow Waters of Romance FREE Book 3 is also available Rescued by the Earl Charlotte Darcy writes sweet and clean Regency romances including: The Broken Duke – Mended by Love The BlueStocking, the Earl, and the Author The Earl's Bitter Secret Refusing the Duke The Montcrieff Collection 6 Book Box Set

Short Stories


Thomas Ryan - 2013
    Ryan believes all good short stories should have unexpected twists and turns. Applying his thriller techniques he manages to achieve this end. Readers will find Ryan’s short story writing gripping and easy to read.In this first collection one of the short story’s ‘Ruth’ was included in an anthology recently published in the USA.Quoting a recent reviewer, ‘these are very intriguing, original stories, all well written and enjoyable. Ryan really gets inside his characters and makes their world our world, whatever its moral code or unwritten rules. These stories are powerful and stay with you once you've finished them.’Short Stories by Thomas Ryan are a must read.

Tough Guy: A Superhero LitRPG Adventure


Andrew Karevik - 2021
    It’s clear, from the get-go, that this villain is a poor schmuck who just happened on a dose of ChemX, and then decided to get paid moments after he developed his superpower.And so, in an attempt to save the poor bastard from the consequences of his foolish actions, Arthur tries to convince him to surrender. But when the caped cavalry arrives, something happens and Arthur is exposed to a leak of the mysterious chemical substance.Soon, he finds himself unlocking his first superpower: extreme Toughness. Unfortunately, superpowers do not pay the rent, and he still has to juggle four jobs to make ends meet. Worse, as was explained to him by a superhero dispatched to the crime scene, his transformation is reversible, due to his method of exposure. And Arthur will be reversed to his former self if he doesn’t prove himself worthy of the gift.To do that, he will have to take part in the famed Combine—aka the Meatgrinder. He will have to join the trials to be accepted in one of the most famous superhero guilds in Eon City: Heroes United. Success means he can keep his powers (on top of a hefty payday.) Failure means he’ll get dechemed and reverted back to his lousy and broke self.If he is to have any kind of chance to prevail, Arthur must level up his skills and gain new abilities. But what is a rookie meta like him to do? As an unregistered hero, he doesn’t even have access to the law enforcement channels warning of villain attacks. And so he starts scouring the streets of Eon City, as a vigilante, with a ski mask to conceal his identity and his ability to endure the most extreme of punishments for sole help.

The Boy from the Wild


Peter Meyer - 2017
     Peter Meyer grew up on an African game reserve. His idyllic childhood was spent running wild in the bush with Zulu friends and other free spirits. His adventures in the wilderness honed his character, nurtured by an inspirational father who taught him to believe that everything is possible. Before he had turned eight he had survived Rhino attacks, close encounters with Buffalo and Wildebeest — and the terror of twice being bitten by snakes. His pets were a baby Elephant, Warthogs and an Ostrich that frequented his backyard. He lived in a world where beauty was tempered by daily struggles for survival. He discovered that the reality of the bush is often heart-breaking, such as when an Nyala doe that he had hand-reared was taken by predators. He learned through first-hand experience that the cycle of life on Africa’s feral outbacks can be as unforgiving as it is magnificent. These were the key lessons from the wilds of Africa that he took with him when his family left the continent; from school days in England where his tough upbringing resulted in being a top sportsman, to studying at an exclusive Swiss hotel school and becoming one of the youngest directors in the Hilton group, managing exotic resorts in Jamaica and the Middle East. He was on top of the world when everything came crashing down due to tragedy. Drawing on resilience learned in the African bush, he started to rebuild his life, becoming an actor and model, clawing his way up in one of the most critically demanding industries in the world. This is an inspiring true story of living the dream — a dream nurtured by the freedom and self-reliance of growing up wild in Africa.

Nowhere


Roger Smith - 2016
    A dark tale of fate, revenge and violence in a country where wrong is the new right.When the president of South Africa murders his wife in a fit of drunken rage he charges his most trusted henchman, the bloodthirsty Steve Bungu, with orchestrating a cover-up that pivots on blackmailing Joe Louw, a retired cop of impeccable ethics, to mount a fake investigation that'll clear the crooked head of state.In a seemingly unconnected case, Investigator Disaster Zondi (Mixed Blood, Dust Devils) who, because of his criticism of the corrupt post-apartheid regime, has been banished to the fringes of law enforcement, is given the thankless task of traveling to the remote Kalahari Desert to arrest Magnus Kruger, a notorious white supremacist who rules over an Afrikaner-only enclave, for the slaying of a young black man.As Louw and Zondi peel away layers of lies, hatred and festering secrets they reveal the connections that bind them, connections that reach back deep into the nightmare of South Africa's apartheid past.

The Sacred River


Wendy Wallace - 2013
    At just twenty-three years of age, she is an invalid, overprotected and reclusive. Before it is too late, she must escape the fog of Victorian London for a place where she can breathe.Together with her devoted mother, Louisa, her god-fearing aunt, Yael, and a book of her own spells inspired by the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Harriet travels to a land where the air is tinged with rose and gold and for the first time begins to experience what it is to live. But a chance meeting on the voyage to Alexandria results in a dangerous friendship as Louisa’s long-buried past returns, in the form of someone determined to destroy her by preying on her daughter. As Harriet journeys towards a destiny no one could have foreseen, her Aunt Yael is caught up in an Egypt on the brink of revolt and Louisa must confront the ghosts of her own youth.The Sacred River is an indelible depiction of the power of women and the influence they can have when released from the confines of proper English society. In the tradition of Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writer Wendy Wallace spins a tale of three women caught between propriety and love on a journey of cultural awakening through an exquisitely drawn Egypt. Sumptuous and mesmerizing, this provocative novel about finding your rightful place in the world is a beautiful, tantalizing read.

A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa


Frederick Courteney Selous - 1881
    His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character. Selous was also a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a select group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann. Going to South Africa when he was 19, he travelled from the Cape of Good Hope to Matabeleland, which he reached early in 1872, and where (according to his own account) he was granted permission by Lobengula, King of the Ndebele, to shoot game anywhere in his dominions.From then until 1890, with a few brief intervals spent in England, Selous hunted and explored over the then little-known regions north of the Transvaal and south of the Congo Basin, shooting elephants and collecting specimens of all kinds for museums and private collections. His travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe. He made valuable ethnological investigations, and throughout his wanderings—often among people who had never previously seen a white man—he maintained cordial relations with the chiefs and tribes, winning their confidence and esteem, notably so in the case of Lobengula. In 1890, Selous entered the service of the British South Africa Company, at the request of magnate Cecil Rhodes, acting as guide to the pioneer expedition to Mashonaland. Over 400 miles of road were constructed through a country of forest, mountain and swamp, and in two and a half months Selous took the column safely to its destination. He then went east to Manica, concluding arrangements which brought the country there under British control. Coming to England in December 1892, he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of his extensive explorations and surveys. Chapter I. - Land at Algoa Bay - Diamond Fields - Trading Trip through Griqualand - The Chief Manchuran - Batlapin Village - Bushman's Lair - Klas Lucas, the Koranna Chief - Bechuanas at Lange Chapter II. - Seventy-eight Elephants shot - Chief, Montsua - Secheli - Bamangwato First Giraffe-hunt - Lost in the Veldt - Tati Gold Fields - Mashuna Diggings Chapter III. - Massacre of a Tribe Lobengula, King of the Matabele - Umziligazi - Slaughter of the "Headmen" - Battle of Zwang Indaba - Terrible Adventure with a Lion - Mashunas Chapter IV. - Eland shot - Abundance of Game - Rain - Hardship - "Bill" and the Crocodile Chapter V. -"Inxwāla" Dance - Matabele War Dress - Black Rhinoceros - Bull Elephants - Linquāsi Valley - Hunting in the "Fly - Varieties of Fauna - Sable Antelope - A "Skerm" - A Grand Elephant-hunt - Narrow Escape of a Kafir ... continues with... Chapter VI - Chapter XXIX This book published in 1881 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting. .

Slay Bells and Satchels


Dorothy Howell - 2011
    Haley, a crazed fashionista obsessed with designer handbags, could find herself "bagged" if she doesn't untangle this mystery quicker than Saint Nick can slide down a chimney.

Slaughter & Maneuver


Tony Hernandez - 2015
    Juan Bocanegra is the newest member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, America’s premiere SWAT Team. An investigation into a dead body found in France brings them clashing back together from a past they wanted to forget, while stumbling upon the biggest threat their country and the free world has ever faced. From the cold seas west of North Korea, to the blistering desert sands of Saudi Arabia comes an international thriller of spies, plots, Kings, terrorism, and the people caught in between. Many will die, but will the plot be thwarted or is this just the first step towards a global collapse?

The Lost Boy


Aher Arop Bol - 2009
    It is the 1980s and they are fleeing the civil war in Sudan. This remarkable account tracks Bol’s boyhood through one camp after another, through good times and bad, until he begins a vast journey through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe which finally ends in South Africa some ten years later. By the time Bol reaches Pretoria, he is in his early twenties, and for the first time finds himself without a purpose. Hoping to lift his spirits, he starts studying English at a school for refugees. He recounts his life experiences to a teacher, who suggests he writes it all down. The result is this book.