Inspired by the absolutely breathtaking mountain town of Hogsback in the Eastern Cape, and my love of a good old-fashioned whodunnit, comes my eighth book for young adults, The Witches of Hogsback.

It has been a dream in the making.

As a child, I devoured anything by R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike and yes, Agatha Christie. I love the fast pace, whittling down the list of suspects and navigating the red herrings. Today there has been a resurgence in the good ol’ teen crime caper, and I am beyond excited to have finally added my own interpretation to the mix.

My crime solver and lover of true crime podcasts, Zelda Scott is a detective for the new generation. Smart, quick-witted and razor-tongued, she’s ready to put herself in danger to unmask killers, and find justice for those society has turned its back on.

After a humiliating breakup, she gatecrashes a school hiking trip to Hogsback, and discovers a wild world of intrigue, secrets and mystery.

Here’s the blurb: 

A girl on a high school hiking trip to the mountain town of Hogsback.
A fatal accident.
A coven of witches who seem to be the obvious suspects.
None of these are what they appear to be.

Zelda is a self-proclaimed do-gooder who simply cannot stay silent if she sees something wrong. Unfortunately, this doesn’t win her any popularity votes. Even her boyfriend Dylan couldn’t put up with it anymore.

Desperate to escape from everything for a while, Zelda signs up for a school hiking trip to Hogsback. Her illusion of having a nice, relaxing time shatters when she stumbles across a mystery nobody seems to care about: the death of local teen Stefan Dale.

Soon, Zelda finds herself knee deep in trouble: from having her room vandalised to nearly being killed by an unknown assailant. Someone clearly doesn’t want her looking into Stefan’s death. Her prime suspects are a group of teenagers known as The Witches of Hogsback, but are they really the most dangerous people in the forest?

The book will be hitting all good bookshops and online stores in the coming weeks. I’ll update this post with links when they become available.