A taut and unsparing novel about a community plagued by violence, drugs, corruption, and prejudice—but where love and justice prevail.

The unidentifiable remains of a body are discovered in a field in Shadow Heights, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Ley, the youngest detective at her precinct, is assigned the case. Soon after, Ley receives a phone call saying that Carl, a friend struggling with a meth addiction, has gone missing after being linked to the Drug King of Shadow Heights. Meanwhile, a local church group believe they are cleansing the area by burning sinners, starting with homosexuals.

The search for Carl leads the reader through the vibrant lives of the residents of Shadow Heights to experience the problems plaguing the neighbourhood but also to feel the love and acceptance found among friends and family in the shadows of everyday life. A pioneering work of fiction in which the dispossessed tell their own stories, In the Shadows is a haunting yet hopeful novel that wrestles with the demons of a community where lives intersect through ruthless brutality, but the bonds between people lead to justice being done.