We’re delighted that Tannie Maria is back for South African readers! Penguin Random House South Africa will publish WILD THINGS NEVER DIE, the fifth title in Sally Andrew’s bestselling and award-winning Tannie Maria Mystery series, on 1st May 2026. To celebrate the launch of WILD THINGS NEVER DIE, Sally will be attending book launches and festivals across the country in May and June, including Franschhoek Literary Festival and Kingsmead Book Fair.
In WILD THINGS NEVER DIE, Tannie Maria is wrestling with a fear of the dark and Henrietta has PTSD. But this doesn’t stop the intrepid agony aunt – and her hen – from going undercover with Maria’s fiancé, Detective Henk Kannemeyer, to the Karoo Wilderness Reserve. Their mission is ‘Save the Vetplantjies!’ – as they seek to protect rare and endangered indigenous plants. At the luxury game lodge, they spy on guests and support the Anti-Poaching Unit in a battle against dangerous gangsters. Maria’s reporter friend Jessie attends the Succulent Symposium, which is tackling the poaching problem internationally. Then, there is a murder...
Our favourite Ladismith sleuths engage with some colourful suspects, including a barefoot artist, a botanist cowboy, a singing gardener, and a sangoma. Between solving murders, writing agony-aunt letters, eating spectacular food, and having spiritual epiphanies, Maria and Henk get fashion tips from a couturier and his Baroness. But fashion is forgotten when their own lives are at stake…
The Tannie Maria series has been translated into fifteen languages and in 2026, RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, the first book in the series, was selected as one of the Booksellers Awards’ four favourite books over the last 10 years. Subsequent titles have been Nielsen Booksellers Choice Best Fiction Books of the Year too. The cookbook companion to the series, RECIPES TO LIVE FOR (also published by Penguin Random House), won the 2025 Gourmand World Cookbook award in the Acknowledgements category and the ‘Best of the Best in the world over the last 30 years’ award. The TV series, RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, is broadcast in over 100 countries and has been recognised for many awards: it recently won multiple awards from the Directors Guild of South Africa: Best Actress (Maria Doyle Kennedy) Best Actor (Tony Kgoroge) and Best Directors (Karen Jeynes and Jozua Malherbe). See more details below.
About Sally Andrew
Photo credit: Joanne Olivier
Sally Andrew divides her time between the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near the small town of Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, South Africa, the setting of her hugely popular Tannie Maria novels. She lives with her renowned wildlife artist partner, among various wild creatures (including, as she says, ‘a giant eland and a secretive leopard’). Sally has also published a number of non-fiction books on adult and environmental education.
You can see lots of excellent video clips – featuring beautiful nature and appetising food – on Sally’s YouTube channel and get a glimpse of Sally and Tannie Maria’s world on her website. Sally sometimes writes for the Daily Maverick in South Africa, featuring the delights of food and the natural world, often including delicious recipes.
With RECIPES TO LIVE FOR: A Tannie Maria Cookbook and International Gourmand Award, the fictional character of Tannie Maria competed with chefs and cooks from 222 countries and won a Best in the World award for the category of Acknowledgments, 2025. It won second place in the Regional category and was subsequently Winner of the Gourmand Best of the Best award in its category, over the last 30 years.
TV rights for a series based on the Tannie Maria books were bought by French-South African Both Worlds Productions, with the support of Edinburgh-based Pirate Productions and with Creative Scotland contributing to funding. The series was selected for the Berlinale ‘Series Markets Selects’ and began broadcast in South Africa on M-Net in March 2022 to brilliant reviews and social media praise. The series was nominated for three awards at the 2023 South African Film & Television Awards (Best Supporting Actress in a TV Drama, Best Achievement in Editing in a TV Drama, and Best Achievement in Directing in a TV Drama), Best Writing for a Television Series at the 2023 WGSA Muse Awards, Best Cinematography at the 2023 Venice TV Awards, and was also shortlisted for a Rose d’Or Award. In 2026 it received awards from the Directors Guild of South Africa for Best Actress (Maria Doyle Kennedy) Best Actor (Tony Kgoroge) and Best Directors (Karen Jeynes and Jozua Malherbe). Acorn TV distributes the series around the world. Watch the trailer here.
Praise for Sally Andrew
‘If you want a vivid, amusing and immensely enjoyable read about detection (and cooking) in an intriguing part of southern Africa, then this is the book for you. A triumph.’ – Alexander McCall Smith
‘Detection, recipes and a cracking mystery. An irresistible page-turning debut.’ – Woman & Home
‘Winning debut culinary cozy. Take a pinch of Alexander McCall Smith, a dash of Diane Mott Davidson, and add a smidge of the wild veld and you’ll get a taste for this lekker story (that’s “delicious” in Afrikaans). … With a fascinating setting, engaging characters, and a full complement of drool-worthy recipes, this is sure to leave readers craving more.’ – Library Journal
‘An intriguing mystery in an exotic locale, a work of enormous charm.’ – Wall Street Journal
‘For something completely different, I suggest RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER. Our detective is a chef turned agony aunt and the story includes recipes – and has a pleasing bite.’ – Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Bookseller
‘Utterly delicious, to the very last morsel.’ – Deon Meyer
Follow Sally Andrew on Instagram.
