Dark Video by Peter Church

A minibus taxi flipping spectacularly on its head; two teenagers engaged in illicit sex in a shopping-mall rest room; a raunchy table dance in a Cape Town strip club? What have these scenes got to do with a beautiful young woman running through Newlands Forest early on a Sunday morning? Alistair Morgan is the key. A gifted law student with a glittering career in the offing, Alistair seems to have it all: looks, charm and money ? and the attention of the hottest girls on campus. But his privileged lifestyle is about to be turned upside down as he is lured deeper and deeper into the sinister online world of Dark Video, where reality blurs and morals unravel. From the ominous slopes of Table Mountain and the murky depths of False Bay to a dusty Karoo farm and the limestone cliffs of Arniston, Dark Video is an intense thriller that will keep you spellbound from the word go.

Oh my word. This book was hectic! I don't know if it was more hectic because it was set in Cape Town so most of the locations were very familiar to me or just because it simply is a hectic story. Sheesh, I was hooked. There was one bit, about mid-way in the book, the pivotal part of the storyline where I just couldn't put it down. I was horrified in a way I am not usually while reading.

Oh, and then the ending ... it twists and turns perfectly for my highest expectations. You think you can see it coming ... and parts of it you can, but the very very end leaves you with the nastiest feeling in the pit of your stomach. If you like books like this, then read it. If you are remotely skeptical then stay away. It is a hectic read ... or as they say in the above write-up, an intense thriller, they couldn't be more spot-on! Shoo.