On the night of 30 October 2002, eight bomb blasts tore through Soweto, leaving one woman dead and damaging vital infrastructure. The bombs were the work of a far-right white Afrikaner separatist group called the Boeremag, whose stated aim was to overthrow the ruling ANC government, rid the country of black people and reinstate a new Boer-administered republic. For months before the bombings, police had been investigating the terror group and had made several arrests. In December, after an intense cross-country manhunt, the perpetrators of the bombings were finally caught. All in all, 23 men were arrested and charged with high treason after the police seized explosives, homemade pipe bombs, weapons and ammunition in arms caches hidden all over the country.

Karin Mitchell began her journalism career in various respected national radio and television newsrooms. The Boeremag trial was her first big assignment, and since then she has covered the Marikana Massacre, the Oscar Pistorius trial, and other significant political events. Driven to tell untold stories, Karin left journalism in 2016 to pursue a full-time writing career. She has dedicated more than a decade of her life to telling the full story of the Boeremag.