These two books in the true Crime series offer the reader a macabre walk down memory land as Chris Karsten showcases 20 of his most memorable murders.

Most occurred within the last two decades, although some of the more notorious slayings of the 1970s – The scissors Murder, and the killing of Robert Smit and his wife for example – are also examined.

Chris Karsten is an experienced journalist and his writing is no doubt factual and properly researched: it is also sensationalist, sentimental, and the English is sloppy.

“No Answers to heinous South African crimes” is the subtitle of ‘Unsolved’ – yet most of the killings it discusses are filed under solved – such as the station Strangler, the sizzler’s Massacre, the Gert Van Rooyen killings, the Crossbow Murder and the Easter assassination of Chris Hani.

“Less provocative is “Slayings which shook South Africa” – the ‘Headline Murders’ to which someone usually confessed, or which the evidence was incontrovertible.

Purple prose, bad writing and bias aside, Karsten’s accounts are addictive: even the most intelligent reader will devour them and call for more because, distorted though they may be, they present a fascinating mirror on our immediate past ( )