Silk Threads

“We want Lisa Van der Linde found.” David Brewster, lands this task, more than twenty years after Lisa, the only daughter of Rotterdam based businessman Johann Van der Linde, disappears. In 2010, she becomes the sole heiress and major shareholder of the Van der Linde Corporation. They want her found, dead or alive.

Lisa, assured a life of leisure, privilege, is expected to marry the right man, conform to the norms of the ultra rich. Instead, at age fifteen, the painfully shy Lisa, meets Eugene, a badass from across the tracks. Eugene is good with women, and Lisa, no match for his practised skill.

“Come next week,” is the first command Eugene issues to Lisa. “Never cut your hair again,” follows shortly. She obeys both. Lisa, who usually avoids contact with people, locks eyes with Eugene across a hall, ten minutes before he makes these demands.
She was not to know he only attended the social to meet her, seduce her, use her.

The story tracks their unusual relationship, intertwined with David's quest for Lisa, and his own budding romance with Henrietta.

Set in Johannesburg and Bulawayo, Frankie Kay explores themes of love, dependency and racial interactions within the context of very different character types.
Lisa, an Aspergers sufferer and painfully shy is intelligent yet terrified of people.. Elusive Eugene, as constrained by his character as are we all, forever in the background, manipulating, dominant. David, a people person. Henrietta: cool, controlled poised.