Critique from a web surfer on Without a Trace

An author with sharp intellectual gifts who wrote a master work. Congratulations, it is a really good thriller that keeps one involved throughout with every three-dimentional character, and it entices one to follow the plot to get to the denouement as quickly as possible.

I can wholeheartedly suggest that this story is turned into a film script and feature on local TV channels.

And Lapa, it’s great to read such excellent books from you, and a beautiful publication capable of transporting and intertwine any reader in tense situation, in your own chair and in your own home.

Congratulations, Riana! Well doone. Looking forward to your next book.



Mouton weaves a crafty web—Stoffel Cilliers

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.

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SPOORLOOS

Alex Cloete is poor and he’s divorced; he tries to make ends meet as a tradesman. This is not easy—his ex regularly makes demands on his meagre resources. He doesn’t see eye to eye with his flashy brother. And to crown it all, Alex has a dark past...

His mother adores him. Zander, his son, lends structure to his life, but Mercia, his ex-wife, has custody of Zander and they live in Durban. Father and son see each other only when Zander visits over the holidays.

When Mercia dies in a car accident, Zander, who was with her in the car, disappears.

Did the torrent in the rever where the car was found drag him down-stream, or are other sinister at work? Did the ‘accident’ have it origins in Alex’s past?
If Zander isn’t dead, where can he be? Who kidnapped him, and why?

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