Clever twist on contemporary crime novels will keep adults reading

THIS is a book of stories, quiet stories with relevance to adults in South Africa and the rest of the world too, who would relish this book, which has adventures, suspense and a well-constructed story-line.

Protagonist Alice Wolf believes she is cursed.

Eccentric and accident-prone, those she loves tend to disappear without warning.

In the case of her mysterious lover, Ralph, it turns out that he has a hidden agenda - he has been studying Alice, using her as fodder for his new novel.

The book intelligently combines a medley of story-telling approaches.

The vocabulary is simple and provocative and the didactic tone also works.

"I often wonder if Ralph knew how much I loved him.

"He spent hours in his room, a prisoner of his laptop, pages unfolding beneath his finger.

"When he emerged, he was often still lost in some scene, grappling with the colourful creatures that were partly inspired by this world, then frothed up in his imagination." (page 20).

To complicate the picture, there's been a horrific break in the pattern of Alice's accidents.

She walks away without a scratch from a car smash that costs another woman her life.

Complex and compulsive, this dark Gothic tale weaves two books together, each causing tension as the reader uncovers more and more versions of Alice's story.

It is in the following line that the Gothic tales weaves in two books... "My clearest memory of Ralph is of him arched over his laptop in his room at Tisca, two-finger typing his mythical book.

"He told me that it was to be called The Sea of Wise Insects."

As tense as a thriller, this exploration of love gone bad, set in London and Cape Town, provides razor-sharp commentary on the power of sibling rivalry, the real cost of crime, the lengths to which people go to survive loss and the connections that haunt and sometimes redeem the reader.

Books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Man and Insects and Soul of the White Ant are the anchors in which the The Sea of Wise Insects has been based.

In most chapters the author has mentioned a quote from one of these books. The first chapter starts with the quote from Eugene Marais, author of The Soul of the White Ant: to support the argument:

"Investigator very soon comes to the conclusion that all motivated movements are dependent on what we call memory.

"These predetermined inherited motivated movements we call instinct.

"You come across this in all its original perfection in insects..."

The author refers to this quote as the first memory.

In the back cover of the book Sarah Lotz says: "The Sea of Wise Insects is one of the most original, compelling and entertaining novels I've read in years.

"Laced with delicious dark humour and off-beat imagery, it is a clever twist on contemporary crime novels.

"I found it impossible to put down."

Indeed, this is a stirring lyrical story and a major boost to crime novel writing.

Author Terry Westby-Nunn is a filmmaker and writer. She lives in Cape Town.