If you're into medieval whodunits ...The Butcher Bird by SD Sykes (Hodder & Stoughton) R250This is the second in Sykes's Somershill Manor mystery series, set in Kent in the 14th century. In the first, the acclaimed Plague Land, young Oswald de Lacy is recalled from a monastery to become lord of the manor after the Black Death wipes out his father and elder brothers - and goes toe to toe with a priest who claims that demonic dog-headed men are murdering women in the area. There's more superstition in The Butcher Bird, as De Lacy tackles the case of a rumoured supernatural flying creature that is snatching up children and making them disappear. Sykes has been praised for the element of comedy she brings to her stories - and for raising the bar considerably for murder in the Middle Ages. No phony celebrations of the peasantry or hippyish earth mothers here.The issueTwo important book events coming up in the Western Cape - the Franschhoek Literary Festival (May 13 to 15), now in its 10th year, and the inaugural Jewish Literary Festival (May 22).It's very much business as usual in Franschhoek, which is having a navel-gazing frothy about the "national debate". If that's your bag, then follow Peter Bruce, Ferial Haffajee, Justice Malala, Allister Sparks, Ray Hartley, Marianne Thamm and any other journalists you recognise around the town. Between the lot of them, they're going to be discussing the way forward, identity politics, race quotas in sport, how to save the country and a whole lot more besides.Given last year's fuss about the "whiteness" of the festival, it's unsurprising to find an event like "Conversations at the white dinner table" on the programme. Here panellists will discuss whether white people have serious conversations about whiteness (no), or whether they simply ask black people what they should "do" to correct injustices of the past (again, no).There's a tilt towards journalism, with several events about the fourth estate. "The men behind the headlines" is one such event. Another is "Are cultural journalists an endangered species?" It's maybe a redundant question, given that South African journalism is not remotely interested in culture of any shape or description. For the full programme, see www.flf.co.zaThe JLF, at the Gardens Community Centre in Cape Town, will showcase authors, poets, illustrators, journalists, writers and educators who have a Jewish connection or are engaged with subjects of Jewish interest. They include Steven Robins, Diane Awerbuck, Rachel Zadok, Patricia Schonstein, Gus Silber, Kevin Bloom, Joanne Jowell, Rahla Xenopoulos, Rosemund Handler, Adam Mendelsohn, Raymond Joseph, Greg Lazarus, Tony Leon, John Matisonn, Jenny Morris and Phillippa Cheifitz.For more details see www.jewishliteraryfestival.co.zaThe bottom line"For many blacks after World War II, the Nazi ghetto provided a powerful metaphor for their own experience." - Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea by Mitchell Duneier (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)..