Ideal reading for a wet winter holiday: two a cut above the rest

A wet winter holiday provided plenty of time for delving into the latest pile of review books, and what ideal reading they were.

Two were outstanding and I can thoroughly recommend No Time Like The Present, by Nadine Gordimer, for anyone wanting to get an insight into the ongoing political struggles in South Africa.

The Independent described Gordimer as "one of the world's greatest writers" and after initially struggling with her style, Gordimer drew this reviewer deep into the black versus white struggle in South Africa which appears to have a way to go before it ends.

Most of the punctuation in the book is dashes with a distinct lack of anything else apart from full-stops.

Once you get past that writing style, sit back and enjoy the ride. The plot revolves around a married mixed-race couple. He is white and she is black and they met while living in the bush and fighting against apartheid for the ANC.

As their careers develop, so does their moderation in politics until the president-elect Jacob Zuma is accused of rape. The black woman is horrified but her father, an ANC loyalist who still lives in the family village, defends the presidential candidate. The interactions between family, friends, work colleagues is enthralling and thoroughly enjoyable.

One of the intriguing debates between the couple is whether to follow many other South Africans and move to Perth, Australia, to distance themselves from South African politics.

• Likewise, The Nightmare, by Lars Kepler, is a page turner with the dark morbid style that now characterises the books by Scandinavian authors being released in New Zealand.

The Nightmare is the second book by Kepler, a husband-and-wife team writing under the pseudonym, and it starts with the expected violence and death which never relents throughout the book. A young woman's body is discovered on an abandoned boat. The likely cause is drowning but her clothes are dry.

Murder, blackmail, strange family customs and a desperate attempt to get an arms deal across the line combine in a thrilling read.

• Blood Loss, by Alex Barclay, was good but not outstanding. The main female character, however, is in a class of her own and a tribute to Barclay for introducing a flawed female instead of the seemingly obligatory male.

Agent Ren Bryce makes her own rules about investigations, even though she is meant to be reporting regularly to her boss, taking her medication and not punching people. She is investigating the disappearance of a young girl and her teenage babysitter from an unfinished hotel in what could be called a small town until the winter ski season. It is worth a look.

• Edward Lucas provided a respite from fiction in a book giving a warning about the real nature of the former KGB regime in Russia. In Deception-Spies, Lies and How Russia Dupes the West, Lucas starts with the capture and execution of Sidney Reilly (the Ace of Spies) and works through to the deportation from the United States of Anna Chapman, who was nicknamed the "Redhead under the bed" and who has gone on to be a celebrity in Russia.

Whether current Russian spies are playing a very long game or they are incredibly inept, the book is fascinating if a bit stilted in its language. The book is well notated but that interrupts the flow. Readers will need to judge for themselves whether to keep stopping at every point to check the notes or to go with the flow. I found it easier to go with the flow unless there was something that just begged for clarification.

• Dene Mackenzie is a Dunedin writer.