Hauntings

Critical But Stable is a murder mystery/ thriller centered around four couples who from the outside are the picture of #blacklove and #Loveliveshere. They are all successful in their own right and part of a high-end stokvel called Khula Social Club.
The idea behind the club is to pull funds together and collectively make short term investments while socializing with the ‘right’ people. In reality, none of them really need the money, the social club is an excuse to have extravagant parties and keep up appearances. We quickly learn that nothing is as it seems in the novel’s opening scene where a man is looking down at the naked body of a beautiful woman, who might be dead. We don’t know who either of them are but immediately sense that something bad has happened and she shouldn’t be where she is.

As we get to know the couples we learn that behind closed doors they all face serious challenges in their relationships. Debt, sexual frustration and dangerous ambitions threaten to destroy everything they’ve built so far. They all try to deal with their issues quietly but as the opening scene suggests their journeys are anything but smooth. As the story progresses we piece together clues to who the woman might be and what happened to her.

Author: Angela Makholwa