PRESENT TENSE

Author: Natalie Conyer

Publisher: Penguin

Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger

I’d like to give a warm welcome to the newest detective on the local crime thriller scene. Captain Schalk Lourens – without the Oom, for those who remember the Herman Charles Bosman character –  an amusing side bar to my mind.  He makes his entrance in the debut novel Present Tense by Natalie Conyer.
The author was born in Cape Town but now lives in Sydney, Australia and this police procedural has already won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime in Australia, was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards and voted one of the best reads of the year by The Australian newspaper.

I enjoy SA crime thrillers: the familiarity of the terrain, the very real characters that try so hard to protect us; the patois, and even the sad reminders of the underbelly of our beautiful city.  Sadly, we live in a crime ridden country, and while some events might seem outrageous and exaggerated, those who live here know better. Material for the would-be writer but not everyone gets it right. Conyer does.

Our Captain is a good South African; married; former rugby player; veteran of the SA Police force; home in the Northern suburbs. When his former boss and mentor Piet Pieterse is found murdered on his wine farm – necklaced – an execution from the apartheid era and usually reserved for township collaborators, Lourens can feel the past rising up again. For Piet was a brutal cop, fiercely upholding the apartheid regime, with methods that Lourens fell foul of as a rookie.
A young tik addict is convicted of the crime and it’s case closed, but Lourens knows there’s more to this than meets the eye and off we set on a pacy, realistic ride. Because the thing about Lourens is he is a seeker of the truth and nothing gets in his way. He’s incorruptible, not averse to a little sexual temptation, doesn’t take well to authority, a bit of a maverick and not scared to face up to his opponents. And he has a great wingman in Joepie Fortune.

The story line bursts with action centred on the lead up to elections, a Commander with friends in high places and a charismatic new leader tipped as the new Mandela – we are thrown into the chaos that surrounds power, wealth and inevitable corruption.

Conyer has created well rounded characters: not least our Schalk; the feisty young Winnie Mbotho whose astuteness must not go unnoticed: and a team that divides the best from the worst. It seemed to me to be a good round up of the good, the bad and the very ugly! She has used real events to illustrate Lourens and Pieterse’s past history giving it authenticity. As I read I was reminded of Mike Nicol crime thrillers so it was no surprise to see he was an advisor. But it certainly does not take away from the assured writing and well executed plot.

All in all, a great debut and I shall look forward to the next Lourens mystery.