When Bill Browder's young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life's mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice.

The first step of that mission was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over.

As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime.

As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of the top lawyers and politicians in America to bring him down.

Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, it was Browder's campaign to expose Putin's corruption that prompted Russia's intervention in the 2016 US presidential election.

Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre - R285

April, 1943: a sardine fisherman spots the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and sets off a train of events that would change the course of the Second World War.

Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted, and the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs, sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction, and saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different, in one crucial respect, from any spy before or since: he was dead. His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily, the Allied armies planned to invade Greece.

This is the true story of the most extraordinary deception ever planned by Churchill's spies: an outrageous lie that travelled from a Whitehall basement all the way to Hitler's desk.

Elon Musk: Risking It All - Michael Vlismas - R285

Elon Musk: Risking it all offers exclusive new insights and first-hand interviews into the childhood that shaped Musk.

From humble beginnings as an awkward Pretoria boy who loved comics, to the influence of his mother and the complex relationship with his father, Musk’s early years were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions.

Journalist and author Michael Vlismas traces his remarkable life, from his first years in America and development of his entrepreneurial vision to becoming the boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars.

Thoroughly researched, this engaging book dispels several myths and offers other sides to the controversy around Musk’s father.

Vlismas attended the same school as Musk and has an intimate knowledge of the environment that shaped him. This is the story of a man utterly uncowed by risk who is driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity and to find a future for humans ‘out there among the stars’.

Milner: Last of the Empire Builders - Richard Steyn - R310

Lord Alfred Milner was a brilliant public servant and one of Britain’s most famous empire builders who left an indelible imprint on the history of South Africa.

Milner was a prominent figure in the Anglo-Boer War – a conflict that proved to be the beginning of the end of the British Empire.

After the war, a determined Milner set out to reconstruct the country by leaving behind a group of young administrators who contributed to the unification of South Africa, but also resentment among Afrikaners for their mentor’s language and education policies.

Back in England, Milner involved himself via the House of Lords in all the great issues of British politics, while continuing to promote the ends of Empire through the activities of the Round Table movement.

This biography, the first by a South African, argues that Milner’s reputation should not be defined by his eight years’ service in South Africa alone as he did much to shape the Allied victory in the First World War.

If his personal qualities and beliefs made him the wrong man to send to South Africa, he was the right man in a far greater international conflict.

Monster - Rudie van Rensburg - R320

Die laaste voerings van oudpolisiespeurder Carl Bester se lewe torring los, en hy sluit aan by die Kaapse tak van Mercurius, ’n CIA-steunpilaar. Intussen word ’n Saoediese joernalis in ’n konsulaat in Istanbul vermoor, met ’n SA joernalis as onwillige ooggetuie.

Gevolge van dié joernalis se besluite kring uit na Kaapstad, waar Carl opdrag kry om die saak te hanteer. Saoediese agente en ’n siellose mesmoordenaar is maar twee van die monster se vele tentakels wat Carl een-een moet afkap.

 

Geheim van Mussolini se Kaart - Constant van der Merwe - R290

’n Aksiebelaaide avontuurverhaal in die styl van The Da Vinci Code.

Elena ontdek ’n ou kaart in die solder op hul plaas, ’n kaart van haar Italiaanse oupa wat as krygsgevangene na Suid-Afrika gestuur is. Dis deel van ’n kaart wat kan lei na ’n goudskat wat Mussolini in ou oorlogsbunkers weggesteek is.

Wanneer sy dit vir haar vriend in Stellenbosch, historikus Ernst, gaan wys, bars alle hel los.

In die chaos wat volg, word sy verdink dat sy Ernst vermoor het en moet sy vlug vir sowel die polisie as die gewelddadige skatjagters.

George, ’n vriend van Ernst, word onwillekeurig ingetrek in haar vlugtog. Maar wanneer sy eie familie se lewens in gevaar kom, moet hy moeilike besluite neem. Los hy vir Elena aan haar eie lot oor, of moet hy haar help om die skat via die Vatikaan met al sy intriges in Italië te gaan soek?

Tenk - Pieter Stoffberg - R320

1987. 'n Konvooi vegvoertuie is op pad na Angola om oorlog te maak. Vir die eerste keer is Suid-Afrikaanse tenks deel van die opmars om die Rooi Gevaar te stuit.

Kommandant Leon Marais dra nie net die las as bevelvoerder nie, maar bots ook met sy direkte hoof. Marius is nie 'n man wat daarvan hou om beveel te word nie.

Tenkbemanningslid, Abrie Ahlers worstel met sy eie probleme. Sal hy sy belofte kan nakom om betyds terug te wees vir die troudatum met sy sewentienjarige swanger meisie? Sal hy enigsins terugkom? En hoekom lieg hy oor die dood van sy pa?

Die insypelaar, majoor Cassie van der Merwe, moet in gevaarlike omstandighede te voet op die vyand spioeneer, en Pietie de Villiers, die jong dokter sonder enige weermagopleiding, word getaak om 'n mediese pos in 'n vyandelike gebied te beman.

Sersant Pierre Wessels praat 'n beangste dienspligte moed in en dra 'n gewonde 32-makker na veiligheid onder swaar bombardement. Motorwerktuigkundige Lappies Labuschagne moet al sy vernuf as soldaat inspan om met 'n mankolieke Ratel 'n gedugte Russiese tenk aan te vat.

Dit is van die grootste veldslae met Suid-Afrikaanse tenks in Angola. Daar is soldate wat sterf en vermink word. Ander breek onder die spanning. Almal keer terug met wonde in hul gemoed. Dit is Operasie Moduler. Dit het alles gebeur.

Zanzibar Zen - Marnus Hattingh - R295

Toe ’n nuuskierige toeris onseremonieel op sy dhow aan Zanzibar se kus vermoor word, reg oorkant waar Giorgio Comaneti sy blinknuwe Zanzibar Zen Casino bou, peul die vreemdste karakters uit die spesery-eiland se tropiese woud.

Comaneti se rykman-speelplek gaan die helfte van die Jozani-woud – die bedreigde Colobus-apie se laaste toevlug – uitwis. Dis nou op die skouers van Toast le Roux, omgewingsjoernalis wat die dekadente Oos-Afrika-toerismekongres bywoon, om die stootskrapers betyds te stop.

En waarom soek Comaneti se handlangers, Tjokkie en Bozo, na die apie met die Lions-rugbykeps in sy hand?

Terwyl die eiland se onafhanklikheidstromme al harder dreun, is Toast in ’n stryd teen tyd gewikkel om bewyse van Comaneti se bose planne te vind. Jaagtogte op Vespas deur Stonetown se stegies en ’n dolle rit op Comaneti se superjag na Mafia-eiland bring hom nader aan ’n finale ontmoeting met die ontwikkelaar.

Three Assassins - Kotaro Isaka - R320

Their mission is murder. His is revenge. A propulsive thriller from the prizewinning author of Bullet Train.

Suzuki is just an ordinary man until his wife is murdered. When he discovers the criminal gang responsible he leaves behind his life as a maths teacher and joins them, looking for a chance to take his revenge.

What he doesn't realise is that he's about to get drawn into a web of unusual professional assassins, each with their own agenda.

The Whale convinces his victims to take their own lives using just his words. The Cicada is a talkative and deadly knife expert.

The elusive Pusher dispatches his targets in deadly traffic accidents. 

Suzuki must take each of them on, in order to try to find justice and keep his innocence in a world of killers.

My Name is Yip - Paddy Crewe - R290

A brilliantly original voice-driven debut about defying expectations, set in the Georgia Gold Rush.

It is 1815 in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, when Yip Tolroy - mute, medical anomaly & social outcast - is born.

His father has disappeared in mysterious circumstances, so he is raised by his mother: a powerful, troubled, independent woman who owns and runs a general store.

She struggles to manage his needs, leaving Yip to find the means of asserting himself in an unforgiving, hostile environment. With the help of a retired doctor, he begins to transform his life by learning to read and write, his portal into the community a piece of slate and a supply of chalk.

And then at the age of 15, Yip's life is altered irrevocably. In the space of a few days he witnesses the discovery of gold, meets his faithful friend and comrade Dud Carter, and commits a grievous crime.

Thrust unwittingly into a world of violence and sin, Yip and Dud are forced to leave town and embark on an odyssey that will introduce them to the wonder and horror of the American frontier until the revelation of a secret means they must return to Heron's Creek and the fate that awaits them.

The Heist Men - Andrew Brown - R280

Cape Town is experiencing a wave of skilfully executed cash-in-transit heists, and Captain Eberard Februarie is brought in to crack the case.

There are few leads to go on, and the gang always seems to be a step ahead of the cops, raising suspicions of a leak from the inside.

Andile Xaba lives a double life, leading a crew of heist men and hiding his activities from his girlfriend and mother. He knows the police are on his tail, and when a job goes wrong, fault lines start emerging in the gang. They cannot afford any more mistakes.

In this explosive new crime thriller, Andrew Brown pits his haunted detective against the most elusive enemy he has yet faced.

While dealing with his own demons, problems with his ex-wife and daughter, and a colonel with a history in the apartheid police force, Eberard moves ever closer to a dramatic showdown.

The Heist Men is a thrilling, poignant triumph, once again revealing Andrew Brown as a vital voice on the local crime fiction scene. A novel sure to satisfy diehard fans and win plenty of new ones.

With a Mind to Kill - Anthony Horowitz - R320

M's funeral.
One man missing from the graveside.
The traitor accused of his murder.
Bond.

Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den - but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, James Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.

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