Another HIT after debut success
Deon Meyer has competition. Tough competition. Her name is Riana Mouton, and from her debut with The Smell of Death, she has had critics in the palm of her hand. It came as no surprise when she reached the shortlist for the ATKV Woordveertjies awards for thrillers with The Smell of Death.
As thriller fan I wondered how Mouton would top her phenomenal debut success. As I read Without Trace, it quickly became clear that Riana Mouton was here to stay.
Few have a natural gift for a challenging genre such as the thriller, but Mouton has what it takes and will hopefully delight her readers for many years to come.
Sy doesn’t wrap her reader up in a boring web unnecessary words and superfluous characters. Without Trace is pacey, fast, and the narrative, as in her previous book, is stripped of bells and whistles and brimming with nail-biting intrigue and interesting twists.
Mouton’s lead characters are credible. Junior Scheepers, the detective in The Smell of Death, won’t be out of place in any police force. The search for Alex Cloete’s abducted son—he is the angry, gutsy hero in Without a Trace—ensures that one won’t easily set aside this page-turner.
One lives his frustration as a father and his disillusionment over everything that has gone awry in his life and career. The spectre of his violent past in the defence force nips continuously at his heels and the reader is on tenterhooks for the climax.
Mouton’s research is impeccable; it’s obvious from her writing. This is where the natural aptitude for the genre shines, because a lesser author would become easily lost in the maze of detail. Or worse still, would not have thought of all those details.
Family secrets and characters from the past draw the reader ever deeper into the web of intrigue. Otherwise, what could possibly be the motive of a group of groep unscrupulous hoods who would first murder Alex’s ex-wife and then kidnap his boy?
And, more important still, how will he get the child from their grasp?
There is plenty of tension. And hand-to-hand action and obviously, blood. Alex isn’t a skilled martial artsist just for the sake of it. The story unfolds across three continents and the clock ticks all the time.
Throughout Alex does battle with personal demons and struggles to get the monkeys of his past off his back. It is incredibly interesting for the reader to watch a character developing!
Mouton’s wrining appears effortless. Her dialogue flows easily, and it’s clear that she knows her characters intimately.
It is interesting to note that the lead characters in both novels are men, but still more resfrehing is her ability to capture the voices of her male characters and how, seemingly without effort, she turns them into living, three-dimensional characters.
One feels that one has come to know Alex and Junio Scheepers personally by the time one can actually put the book down. Or rather, in truth one puts the book down too early, and as with her previous book, one wants still more.
Even though there are plenty of clues, the end, even for a careful reader with a predeliction for the genre, such as I, is still a surprise—as far as I am concerned the first characteristic of a great whodunnit.
Just like The Smell of Death, Without a Trace belongs in the library of every thriller nut. It competes very favourably with American authors of thrillers like Patricia Cornwell or Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. With any luck these two books will soon be complemented by more from Mouton’s skilled pen.
Ilse Salzwedel fired a salvo of messages to Riana Mouton’s email address: