Present Tense by Natalie Conyer

Reviewed by Rod McLary

Natalie Conyer first came to my attention when her book – her second book – Shadow City was published in Australia in 2024.  I reviewed it in these pages and said:

The author has crafted a taut and tense novel which engages the reader from the beginning and doesn’t ease up until the dénouement.  The characterisation of all the players, particularly of the two key protagonists Jackie and Schalk, is both authentic and engaging.   This – and the quality of the writing – adds to the enjoyment of the narrative and the chase.

 I don’t resile from anything I said in that review, and on now reading her first book – Present Tense – am very much of the opinion that Natalie Conyer is a major crime writer.

The protagonist Schalk Lourens is a Captain in the South Africa Police Force and is stationed at Cape Town Central Police Station.  While the second book is largely set in Australia and more specifically in Sydney, this one is very much set in Cape Town where the townscape and the heat are rendered so viscerally, the reader is immediately transported there.  The novel begins with a murder – that of Schalk’s previous boss Petrus Pieterse – by a particularly gruesome method.  It is called, euphemistically, a ‘necklace’ where a car tyre is placed around the neck of the victim and set alight.  A ‘necklace’ was very much associated with Apartheid when that instrument of murder was used for ‘revenge or money or community punishment’ [4].  Schalk is immediately confronted with the questions – by whom and why?

And thus unfolds a tense and thrilling journey towards the truth – a difficult journey plagued as it is with betrayal, political machinations, violence and, to mitigate all that to some extent, a seduction.  Schalk is supported in his endeavours by his friend Captain Fortune and Sergeant Winsome Mbotho – a black South African.  Mbotho’s inclusion allows the spectre of incipient racism to rear its head and how it is negotiated by both Schalk and Winsome makes for an interesting read.

As it is set in South Africa and reinforcing the novel’s authenticity, there is the frequent use of Afrikaans words and phrases.  These include ‘skop, skiet en donder’ meaning ‘kick, shoot and thunder’ sometimes used to describe an action movie; ‘sies-a’ meaning ‘disgusting’ and ‘jy weet’ meaning ‘you know’.  While the meaning of the word or phrase can often be understood from its context, there is a very detailed Glossary at the end of the novel to help out.

Present Tense is a well-crafted crime thriller with added depth expressed through the impending transition from one political regime to another, the perpetual challenge of the personal versus the professional, and the tension between justice and revenge.  It is indeed a very thoughtful and considered novel; and well recommended to all readers of crime fiction.

Present Tense won the Ned Kelly Award for the best debut crime novel of 2020, was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards and was nominated as one of 2020’s best reads by The Australian.  The author Natalie Conyer was born and grew up in Cape Town but now lives in Sydney.

Present Tense

[2020 and re-packaged in 2024]

by Natalie Conyer

Echo Publishing

ISBN 978 1 7606 8968 1

$32.99; 321pp

 

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