Crime fiction: Every city has an evil shadow
Book review by Dr Anne Sarzin
The old-fashioned detective work in numerous American TV crime dramas –from the eponymous sleuth in Colombo tracking obscure clues, the brilliance of Jessica Fletcher in Murder she wrote, or the penetrating mind of Sherlock Holmes won legions of fans around the world and shaped our expectations of crime fiction. Today, however, in the age of DNA identification and computerised databases, much of that hard slog, gut-instinct and astute analysis has succumbed to the allure and accuracy of scientific solutions. Fortunately, in the realm of contemporary crime fiction, Natalie Conyer preserves many earlier crime-solving techniques that traditionally entrapped readers, while skilfully adapting her story to modernity with all its socio-political and economic overtones.
And what a world it is, or rather two worlds juxtaposed: personified in Detective Sergeant Jacqueline Rose, whom we first meet on her home ground in Sydney, confronting a mysterious crime involving the death of an unidentified, battered and bruised young woman, discovered in the city’s Chinatown; and Detective Captain Schalk Lourens working in Caledon Square, police headquarters in Cape Town, with his team comprising an eclectic mix of the country’s ‘rainbow’ people.
How these two investigators interact in Sydney comprises the crux of the matter in this fascinating exposure of brutal killers and their accomplices. They join forces to solve a series of baffling and deadly crimes involving modern-day slavery and, in particular, sex trafficking routes and their victims from South Africa to Australia, and the devastating effects of this lucrative trade on the young innocents and their families duped by organised crime involved in forced labour, child exploitation, sexual coercion and human trafficking.
But there is so much more to this novel, especially for current and former South Africans, who will relish the vivid personality of Schalk Lourens, his multiracial team bonded together in friendship and loyalty—his boss, ‘pocket-rocket’ Colonel Sisi Zangwa, Joepie Fortune, Winnie Mbotho and Max Myerson, the latter head of Intelligence at Caledon Square—and the vivid descriptions of Cape Town and regional landmarks. For readers unfamiliar with the country and its languages, there is a glossary to explain the local lingo that enlivens the book’s conversational style.
For me, familiar as I am with both cities, the dual locations provided an unexpected delight that added immeasurably to my reading pleasure and fed my nostalgia for Cape Town, undeniably a magical city with its brooding Table Mountain, to which Schalk Lourens is understandably attached. What is especially fascinating, however, is the changed demography and social strata of the country and the emergence of a skilled Black (African) and ‘Coloured’ (bi-racial) working force in executive positions, which Conyer depicts with authenticity and empathy. And then there is the magnetism of Sydney, shown in all its splendour and diversity, while also exposing its corrupt underbelly.
So what took Conyer in this direction? Why Cape Town and Sydney? Why not London, Paris, Rome or Bangkok? The answer to that query can be found in her own biography. She grew up, until the age of 17, in Bellville, a suburb of Cape Town, the granddaughter of Jewish migrants to the country. Sickened by apartheid, she left the country of her birth for Australia, where she worked in the corporate world before completing a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Western Sydney, focusing on the genre of crime fiction. Her first novel, Present Tense, formed a creative component of this DoC degree and introduced Detective Schalk Lourens to readers for the first time.
In Conyer’s abstract of her thesis, she pays tribute to South Africa’s locally written crime fiction that she maintains has become a literary force. ‘Although some critics initially dismissed the genre as superficial and cliche’d, most now agree it offers important social, political and ethical insights, providing an arena in which shared issues may be theorised and thought through,’ she writes. Interestingly, she alludes to themes later included in her current novel—the implications of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the loss of faith in governance and the rule of law, issues surrounding race and whiteness, and South Africa’s emergence into the larger world. Conyer argues that the conventions of crime fiction are powerful tools for conveying social insights and nuanced comment on social issues at a particular place and time.
While academic theorising is germane to the genesis of Conyer’s writing, it forms no part of her latest novel, which is a highly entertaining read with colourful characters delving into pertinent social issues that bedevil life in Australia and South Africa. It provides closure and, finally, justice is served. In the process, these two countries form an intriguing, vivid and captivating backdrop for the fast-paced action. Conyer has written a highly entertaining, compulsive and rewarding read.
Shadow City
Natalie Conyer
Echo Publishing
2024
