ASH AND INK
Dark Justice: A South African Crime Series — Book 6 of 24

A body is found inside a burned-out tattoo parlour in Durban's Station District — the victim bound, suffocated, and surrounded by cryptic ink sketches that survived the fire. Among the ash: a lotus-serpent symbol, scorched into the tiles beneath the corpse.

For detectives Thandi Mokoena and Adam Barnard, this case is personal. The victim was a former informant. And the location? A safehouse once used by undercover units — now a crime scene. But when the autopsy reveals surgical scars and experimental ink compounds in the victim's skin, the case takes a darker turn.

As they chase leads through Durban's art scene, gang turf, and forgotten Apartheid-era files, Thandi and Adam uncover a clandestine program that blurred the lines between body art, surveillance, and mind control — a program quietly erased, except by those it marked.

And The Circle? It's watching.

Ash and Ink is a haunting descent into legacy experiments, corrupted science, and the messages people carry on their skin when truth is too dangerous to speak. Some memories fade. Others are branded into the flesh.

In a city built on scars, the ink always tells the truth.