Anni Dewani

The police found Anni Dewani’s (Hindocha) body on the morning of 13 November 2010 in an abandoned vehicle in Gugulethu, a township in Cape Town. She died from a single gunshot to the neck.

Late the previous evening gunmen hijacked the taxi that she and her husband were traveling in. After robbing them the highjackers evicted Shrien from the vehicle before driving off with Anni.

The police quickly arrested one of the highjackers – which led to the arrest of three other conspirators – which included the taxi driver.

The taxi driver confessed that he was hired by the husband, Shrien Dewani, to arrange a hit on Anni by staging a hijacking, to kill Anni, and to make it look like a botched robbery.

After a prolonged legal struggle, the UK extradited Shrien to South Africa to stand trial for the murder of his wife Anni.

The court dismissed all charges against Shrien because it considered the testimonies of the conspirators too unreliable. It simply did not know “where the lies end and the truth begins.”

In the book The Bloodied Bride, the brothers Thomas and Calvin Mollett have done what has never been done before – they compare Shrien’s different versions as told to his family, the press, the police, and the court. In the end, the reader will be left wondering “where do his lies end and the truth begin”.