AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION 2024: NEW BOOKS BY NATALIE CONYER and DAVID WHISH-WILSON

The best crime fiction has always tackled pressing social and political issues, and shone a light on the dark corners of society, without smothering the plot in diatribe.

Over recent months we have seen novels from a diverse range of authors, including Michael Robotham, Tony Park, S. A. Cosby and J. P. Pomare, which have smoothly and poignantly dealt with a range of important issues, from people smuggling to endangered wildlife poaching to racism and inequities in the legal system, without detracting from the engagement of their storylines.

Now we have two new Australian novels, which also deal effectively with current issues, while being very entertaining.

Natalie Conyer drew considerable praise, and a Ned Kelly Award, for her excellent first novel, Present Tense, which dived convincingly into the maelstrom of modern South Africa. Now with her second novel, Shadow City (Echo Publishing, 3 September 2024), she continues her examination of the complexity of politics and policing in that country, while also addressing the broader issue of modern day slavery.

Shadow City moves seamlessly between Cape Town and Sydney, and reintroduces us to veteran South African detective Schalk Lourens and a new character in the form of Sydney Homicide Detective, Jackie Rose.

The book opens with the discovery of the body of a young woman in a food court in Sydney’s Chinatown. She had been beaten, tortured and tattooed with the image of a sun. Called to the scene, Jackie asks herself whether this was a drug murder, or something else. But before her investigation can get under way, she is ordered to hand the case over to the Australian Federal Police. 

Meanwhile in Cape Town, a local girl recruited to study in Australia has fallen off the radar. Veteran detective Schalk Lourens, recently suspended from duty over allegations about past misconduct during white rule, has already made plans to visit his daughter in Sydney. Unable to neglect the plea from the missing girl’s mother, however, he decides to search for her while he is there. 

Once in Australia, Schalk finds himself caught up in Jackie’s investigation, and together they join forces to expose a trail of corruption and crime stretching from the Sydney foreshore to the picturesque Blue Mountains and across the world. 

Shadow City is a powerful and engaging novel. The descriptions are crisp and evocative, and the characters are nicely nuanced and convincing. Schalk’s outsider views of Sydney are interesting, and spot on, and the descriptions of Cape Town are also striking. The plot moves along at a brisk pace and the ending, although a little drawn out, is thought provoking, and offers the requisite excitement and twists you expect in a crime novel.

Underpinning the plot are seemingly astute observations on the political and social situation in South Africa, and the hidden trade in people smuggling and modern day slavery. There are also pointed reflections on policing in Australia and the influence of international politics. These troubling concerns are well conveyed and add some good flesh to the story, and help to propel it along.

Some of the relationships in the book are a little too convenient, but overall Shadow City is one of the best crime thrillers I have read this year.

Shadow City is released in Australia on 3 September 2024. Overseas, it only seems to be available in the United States on Kindle.

Also packing a strong emotional punch is David Whish-Wilson’s Cutler, (Fremantle Press, 3 September 2024).

Whish-Wilson’s I am Already Dead was my favourite Australian crime novel of 2023. A taut well written novel, it excelled in its characterisations and its portrayal of the underbelly of Perth in the 1980s. Now with Cutler, (Fremantle Press, 3 September 2024), he turns his attention to the environmental destruction and human horror of the industrial deep-sea fishing business.

Paul Cutler is a former undercover operative, now working off the books for his handler, Malik Khalil. When Cutler is tasked with investigating the disappearance of an Australian marine scientist on a Taiwanese distant water fishing vessel, Cutler realises that the apparent murder he is investigating points to a slew of much darker crimes. Onboard, Cutler discovers that the vessel’s crew members are kept as slaves, subject to brutal punishment and forced to work long hours with little rest. And when he learns of the recent massacre of the crew of an Indonesian fishing vessel in the same waters, he realises his quest for the truth will be meaningless if he cannot escape with his life.

Cutler opens a little slowly, but once underway the tension quickly ramps up and the book builds to a thumping climax that is not for the idealists among us. The gritty descriptions of the fishing industry and life on a fishing vessel ring true, and David is very good at recreating the claustrophobic feel of being on a fishing vessel for months on end. The characterisations are simple, but well done, and the reader readily comes to care for Cutler and his unfortunate ship mates.

The crimes at the core of the book are credible and dark, and the descriptions of how the fish and assorted sea life are captured and killed are horrendous. The tricks and subterfuge of the international fishing industry are not surprising, but are certainly thought provoking, and more than a little depressing.

In all, Cutler is a powerful crime novel that will leave you thinking, and is a strong start to a promising new series by Whish-Wilson.

Cutler is released in Australia on 3 September 2024 and in the United States in October 2024.

Thanks to Echo Publishing and Fremantle Press for the books and their support of diverse Australian crime fiction.