Minder as niks, the latest offering of Irma Venter, one of South Africa’s most popular suspense writers, will appear in Albanian translation following Ombra GVG’s acquisition of the translation rights.

“We are delighted to add Minder as niks to our list at Ombra GVG. We look forward to sharing with our readers this gripping and well-written novel by Irma Venter. She clearly knows how to tell a story,” says Vasilika Tafa, publisher of Ombra GVG.

Founded in 1998 by Vasilika and Gëzim Tafa, Ombra GVG is one of the most well-known publishing houses in Albania. It has been awarded with many important cultural prizes, such as the Lumo Skëndo Prize 2010, granted by The Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports of Albania, as well as the National Library of Albania.

Minder as niks [“Less than nothing”] is the first book in a new series of suspense novels by Venter. It was one of the top selling Afrikaans titles published in 2021. This follows the major success of Venter’s so-called “S-series”, a series of suspense novels with overlapping characters released from 2012 onwards.

About the book

Thirty years ago, Johan Botha was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of three teenage girls. Just after being released due to  terminal illness, he asks crime journalist Ami Prinsloo to prove his innocence. 

How can she refuse? It’s a brilliant story. And, as a former Olympic swimming champion with a few skeletons of her own in her closet, she knows what it feels like to lose everything. And what it’s like when someone you love is murdered, and the killer is still roaming free . . . 

Details

About the author

Irma Venter is a bestselling South African crime fiction writer and a journalist at a media company in Johannesburg. She received the Siemens Profile Award in 2012 for her writing on science and technology. She also received the ATKV Prize for Best Suspense Fiction for her debut novel, Skoenlapper (2012). The other novels in the so-called S-series have all been bestsellers. Venter is the first South African author to be published internationally by Amazon Crossing. She writes books about strong women, interesting men and that fascinating space between right and wrong.

Praise

“Less Than Nothing is an extraordinarily sophisticated, thoroughly researched crime novel that is also thematically-philosophically entertaining and provocative. What could be the question that has “less than nothing” as an answer?

[…]

It is a captivating, brooding chronicle of human fragility and the impact that loss has on those who are left behind, but it is also a crime story in which DNA plays a key role. Venter deftly utilises her background as a journalist to address current issues credibly, excitingly and with integrity. […] Irma Venter remains second to none!”

Jonathan Amid, Rapport

*****

“Irma Venter is a South African thriller writer and a darn good one.”
John Maytham, CapeTalk

*****

“Her latest offering to the crime fiction gods exceeds all expectations. […] It has been a long time since I have been this captivated by a book.”

Willemien Aukema, Die Burger