Lesley Rochat

Four young friends, en route to the coast for a weekend of surfing and fun are forced to seek help from a strange recluse when their car breaks down. Jack Rattigan is a strange man living in an even stranger house, a decaying relic of a bygone age. Is Rattigan insane? Or are his words and acts and expression of a mind tortured by mortal anguish? What is Rattigans secret? And what is the source of his power to mesmerise?

The infamous poisoner, Daisy Louisa de Melker (née Hancorn-Smith) was born on 1 July 1886 near Grahamstown. Daisy was charged with the murder of her two previous husbands and her son. Her trial began in October 1932 before Judge Greenberg in Johannesburg. Daisy was not found guilty of the murder of her two previous husbands, but she was found guilty of the murder of her son. On 30 December 1932, Daisy was hanged in Pretoria Central Prison, without ever pleading guilty or showing any remorse. Daisy was the second woman in South Africa to be hanged.