Kim van Kets
The Tannie Maria Trilogy – Sally Andrews (Published by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House)
Menu
  • Home
  • Trails & Adventure
    • Adventure
    • Expeditions
    • Trails
  • Speaking
    • Adapt and Thrive
    • How not to be an On-Line Idiot
  • Wild Woman
    • Where did it all start
    • Our Charities
    • Entry Process
  • Thoughts
  • Book Reviews
  • Van Kets Consulting
  • Media
  • Contact
Kim van Kets
  • Home
  • Trails & Adventure
    • Adventure
    • Expeditions
    • Trails
  • Speaking
    • Adapt and Thrive
    • How not to be an On-Line Idiot
  • Wild Woman
    • Where did it all start
    • Our Charities
    • Entry Process
  • Thoughts
  • Book Reviews
  • Van Kets Consulting
  • Media
  • Contact
Book Reviews

The Tannie Maria Trilogy – Sally Andrews (Published by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House)

posted by Kim
Nov 12, 2020 10291 0 0
Share
The Tannie Maria Trilogy – Sally Andrews (Published by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House)

Sally Andrew has published three books in the Tannie Maria series: Recipes for Love and Murder, The Satanic Mechanic, and Death on the Limpopo.

 

I discovered Tannie Maria when Recipes for Love and Murder was first published in 2015/6 and immediately fell in love with the unlikely heroine.  (I also gained a considerable amount of weight in the very short time that I took to devour this first book of the series. I kept having to interrupt my reading for urgent foraging trips to the kitchen for snacks– inflamed byTannie M’s obvious passion for food and her mouthwatering recipes generously seasoning the pages.)

Maria is a nice, middle-aged, widowed, Afrikaans Tannie who lives in a small Karoo town and who makes a modest income writing a cooking column for the local community newspaper, the Klein Karoo Gazette.  When her column is scrapped she is forced to reinvent herself as the agony aunt to avoid losing her job and the camaraderie and karring melk beskuit she enjoys at the newspaper’s office. She finds an extraordinary way to combine her advice on life and love with recipes that provide the perfect therapy to her readers. But when the author of one of her more agonized letters dies under tragic circumstances, Tannie Maria is drawn into the investigation which leads to tension, conflict and romance with the solemn local SAP detective Henk Kannemeyer (“I could feel the warmth coming off his body like he had just come out of the oven.”)

 

I love everything about Tannie Maria. Everything.  She is firmly middle agedand feels no obligation to be anything other than her plump, uncool, comfortable, authentic self.  She is unapologetic in a friendly, unassuming way about her girth, her elderly brown veldskoene, her pink flannel nighty and her little Nissan bakkie. Most of all I love how she is constantly and euphorically distracted by the texture, flavor and soul of food.  Food is her ministry, her work of art and love and healing for herself and others.

 

I love the way she talks to her chickens, the gwarrie tree in her garden, the old Aga and the food she so effortlessly produces and consumes.  I love the way she notices things and appreciates the nuances and the not-so-obvious charm of the Karoo.  Like the Karoo landscape (and for that matter like many middle aged women!) her value is easy to miss or underestimate.  But one quickly comes to appreciate that Tannie Maria is in fact unwittingly subversive. She rejects convention without ever making a big deal of it. She is independent and brave, revolutionary and funny. She is a gentle survival expert who neither notices nor proclaims her own magnificence.  I hope to be more like her when I grow up.

 

The amateur detective (and of course food!) themes run through all three of her books which introduce glorious South African characters like Jessie the feisty coloured reporter, Hettie the uptight editor, and Zaba the badass political investigative journalist.

 

The latest book, Death on the Limpopo, has just (deservedly) been shortlisted for the SA Book Awards.

 

 

I love books!  After all, “Reading is like breathing in and writing is like breathing out.” Pam Allyn

So I am excited and proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Vrye Weekblad (https://www.vryeweekblad.com/), which I have admired since my student days, to write some of their book reviews. Previously published in the Vrye Weekblad in Afrikaans.
Share

Previous

Meditating with Rhinos – Helena Kriel (Published by Melinda Ferguson Books)

Next

Not to Mention – Vivienne De Klerk (Published by Picador Africa)

My Blog Categories

  • Adventure
    • The Beast Of Ballyhoura
    • Tour de Tuli
  • Expeditions
    • Tri-The Beloved Country 2011
  • Trails
    • Addo run
    • Hobbit 90km
    • Lycian Way Ultra
    • The amazing race
    • The Kalahari Augrabies
    • Wild Coast Ultra
  • Wild Woman
  • Thoughts
  • Product Review
  • Media
  • Charities
  • Peter Van Kets
  • Inspirational Talks
    • Testimonials
  • General News

Latest Posts

  • The Baviaanskloof is a portal
  • Know your worth, then add tax.
  • Boardroom Dancing
  • A kind of sermon, but a violent one
  • The opposite of Faith is not doubt, its certainty

Social Scene


Quick Links

  • Peter Van Kets – Endurance Adventurer
  • The Carl Du Toit Center for Deaf Children

You Might Also Like

Book Reviews
Feb 9, 2021

Magenge, We Need To Talk – Melusi Tshabalala (Published by Melinda Ferguson Books)

This book was not written for me. It was written for men.  For black men in particular, although it’s really a book...

Read More
0 0
Book Reviews
Feb 11, 2024

Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart (Published by Picador)

Possibly the fact that a book has won a Booker Prize (or indeed any literary award) should serve as an immediate...

Read More
0 0
©2025 Kimvankets.com - All Rights Reserved
Back top