Critique by Stoffel Cilliers

Riana Mouton’s SPOORLOOS (Without a trace)

A good thriller writer weaves a crafty web, like a spider. At first she (in this case) lures the reader ever more subtly into her web. And all to soon he doesn’t want to escape from the enticing world.

Riana Mouton’s technique, with this goal in sight, is the effective use of functional flashbacks to all the past of each lead character while building their personalities.

Her gradual laying of foundations captures one—way before the lead chatracter, Alex Cloete, lets rip with his lady, a .338-Lapua Magnum.

The reader meets Alex in a police cell after a week-end of brainless boozing. His life has lost its compass. His ex-wife dies mysteriously and his six-year-old boy disappears. It also appears as if the top secret missions from his days in the defence force are about to boomerang.

Alex gets back on track when he starts looking for his son.

The author did solid homework on “CQB – Close Quarter Combat”–in which Cloete had intensive training. He drills himself all the way through the ordeal, just like his erstwhile instructor: “Focus, Alex. Transition, position, technique. Control your brathing. Stay calm” (p. 59).

Well-nigh half the novel–perhaps too much for some–the foundatiolns are laid before Alex actually drives into Durban, where the fireworks start.

Some events are not entirely convincing and Alex sometimes gets out of trouble almost in a super-natural “MacGyver” way. Mouton satisfies the reader emotionally and, added to that, the story isn’t predictable and solutions not obvious. The psychological game between Alex and his adversaries Die sielkundige spel tussen Alex en sy teenstanders captures the reader throughout.

Mouton creates tension through her hero’s impeccable, logical planning, even if he is close to losing it; through the dramatic use of dialogue, asymmetrical sentence construction, graphic description and ample deur dramatiese dialooggebruik, wisselende sinsbou, grafiese beskrywings van die oorvloedige outward action and explosive, intense mood shifts.

The tension curve also rises because Alex’s search switches swiftly from Pretoria to Durban, from South Africa to New Zealand (where Mouton currently lives), from mullet to mastermind.

The author is probably a chess wizard. She correctly indicates that Alex’s valuable chess set, the Dublin Series Timeless set, has 34 pieces–“two extra queens for queening pawns” (p. 50).

But it is imminently apparent that she plans the intrigue way ahead.

She is particularly adept at dropping clues and thus provides the die observant reader with an exciting treasurehunt and adventure to see which clues were correctly picked up.

And totally apt for our false society: Every second character has a skeleton in the closet. When it suits puppeteer Riana Mouton’s neatly planned intrigue, all the skeletons tumble onto the floor.

The author is equally at home in her depiction of male and female characters. By way of one of her strong points, the natural use of dialogue, she providew insight into her characters and develops her particularly captivating style.

It is conspicuous that almost all the lead chatracters grow individually throughout. There is also radical development in inter-personal relationships between the characters.

This results from the author’s continual focus on a strong psychological foundation, which forms part of her as deel van haar convincing chracterisation. The denouement abviously shows convincingly what influence intensely thrilling events had on the different characters.

Already in her debut offering in 2008—The Smell of Death—Mouton achieved success as the first female detective novelist in Afrikaans when this novel made the short-list for the ATKV prize for thrillers.

SPOORLOOS (Without a trace) will probably lure more than a handful of permanent fans to her web.

’A trait of her most recent work is that the reader is constantly provided with important data, more than just tense intrigue. This transforms it into an important, solid thriller, topped with a satisfying climax.