The author of this series was born in South Africa, but has lived in Sydney, Australia for a long time. PRESENT TENSE is the first, followed by SHADOW CITY (https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/shadow-city-natalie-conyer). Based around veteran cop Schalk Lourens these books are gritty and dark, tackling aspects of South Africa's past and present in a clear, concise and unflinching manner.
Having read the second book first, PRESENT TENSE provided the details for a lot of the important parts of Lourens past, as well as his present. A cop for many years, he has experienced the apartheid years, and got himself into trouble with his superiors because of his actions then. When retired Police Chief Piet Pieterse is murdered at his private farm, necklaced, a tyre forced around his neck, doused in petrol and set alight, Lourens is instantly pulled back to a time, when as a young cop, his relationship with Pieterse was very complicated. Referencing aspects of those years, and the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Conyer has built a very real and quite confronting story about South Africa's troubled past, and the lines in the sand that some people stood either side of.
Along with the murder investigation, which is "solved" too conveniently, too quickly and just plain wrongly as far as Lourens is concerned, the country is on a knife-edge with an election due, one that's increasing the volatility and violence in a country that's got some very desperate people looking for a way forward and a massive problem with improper influence and corruption.
The underlying cultural and historical elements of this series are delivered in an unflinching yet careful manner. The fallout from the apartheid years, the treatment of people, those that got rich, and those for whom life never really improved is shown, never told. The characters are wonderfully evoked, again never shying away from the pluses and minuses, with the use of local terminology (phrases and words) that give a real feel for the people, without ever being difficult to follow. Schalk Lourens is a principled, and decent man, who has trouble trusting new colleagues, and devoted to those he knows. His wife is unwell, struggling with mental health issues and he's as supportive as he knows how, yet falls into an extra-marital affair without a backwards look. He's a loving father, and you can just see him shaping up to be a disapproving father-in-law (something that plays out more clearly in the second book).
This really is an excellent series, invoking a time and a country that you often hear just the bad stuff about. Clearly not pretending for one moment that it's not a homeland with considerable difficulties, it is drawing a portrait of a homeland with some sections of the community pretty clear-eyed about where they have been, and where they should be heading.
Present Tense
What if justice isn't enough?
Schalk Lourens got out his phone and started filming, something Pieterse taught him years ago. Keep a record. Do it yourself, boykie, every time. That way you can be sure. Cover your arse. Don't trust any of them.
Schalk began with Pieterse himself, what was left of him.
Cape Town, South Africa.
Retired police chief Piet Pieterse has been murdered, necklaced in fact. A tyre placed round his neck, doused with petrol, set alight. An execution from the apartheid era and one generally confined to collaborators. Who would target Pieterse this way, and why now?
Veteran copy Schalk Lourens is trying to forget the past. But Pieterse was his old boss and when Schalk is put on the case, he finds the past has a way of infecting the present.
Meanwhile, it's an election year. People are pinning their hopes on charismatic ANC candidate Gideon Radebe but there's opposition and in this volatile country, unrest is never far from the surface.
Schalk must tread a difficult path between the new regime and the old, between the personal and the professional, between justice and revenge.
This investigation will change his life, and could alter his county's future.
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