Thriller teaches a lesson

RACY, pacy and so very South African, Irna van Zyl has created a cast of characters and a story that pulses with energy from the first page.

Her writing holds you captive and her use of familiar Cape Town and Karoo destinations and events gives another view of what is hidden beneath the beauty.

Van Zyl is a media queen and it is clear that she absorbs news like a sponge, translating it into highly readable thrillers with strong storylines that are totally plausible.

This is a thriller that is relevant and relatable, exploring relationships, pulsing with secrets, past lives and a gripping, juicy murder.

Van Zyl builds a backstory that fits with the South African psyche even down to the cat named Mister Bo who is actually a Mrs!

Louw has disappeared, her partner Kristien is frantic, with a myriad possibilities tormenting her.

Louw has not come home after an event with a tricky guest speaker client at a very upmarket hotel at the V&A Waterfront.

Was it the quarrel they had earlier in the day or is there something else? When the client is found dead at that same hotel and Louw has vanished, big question marks are flagged – is she on the run?

Kristien has to spring into action and calling in best friends Niklaas (who knows the cop on the case) and Zanie (truly zany – pot-smoking, cat boarder and honey collector) they try to find the trail and are led on a terrifying journey. Is there a connection with the hijacking of Louw’s mother 21 years ago?

So many layers to the psychologically scarred Louw and for Kristien, unravelling the disparate threads holds the key to their relationship. Has the past been resurrected?

The reader is taken on a ride of epic proportions, hurtling from Cape Town to Graaf Reinet to Oudtshoorn, as each piece of Louw’s past threatens to engulf them. And, as the present hurtles to meet that past, there are electrifying consequences.

The strength of any novel, and most particularly in a thriller, is in the detail, and Van Zyl has plotted this thriller with precision.

She is acutely aware of the quirky characters that populate South Africa and uses them to bring life and colour to the prose. She knows how to build the tension and hold it.

But the message I got from this well -constructed read was that hanging on to the bitterness and hatred of the past is the most damaging and destructive element for a peaceful present.