Present Tense

What if justice isn’t enough?

Cape Town, South Africa. Retired police chief Piet Pieterse has been murdered, necklaced in fact. A tyre placed round his neck, doused with petrol, set alight. An execution from the apartheid era and one generally confined to collaborators. Who would target Pieterse this way, and why now?

Veteran cop Schalk Lourens is trying to forget the past. But Pieterse was his old boss and when Schalk is put on the case, he finds the past has a way of infecting the present.

Meanwhile, it’s an election year. People are pinning their hopes on charismatic ANC candidate Gideon Radebe but there’s opposition and in this volatile country, unrest is never far from the surface.

Schalk must tread a difficult path between the new regime and the old, between the personal and the professional, between justice and revenge.

This investigation will change his life, and could alter his country’s future.

PRAISE FOR PRESENT TENSE:
‘A truly remarkable book. South Africa comes to vivid life in these pages.’ – Kerry Greenwood

‘Present Tense is an atmospheric and taut trip into the heart of the complex modern-day politics of South Africa. A fascinating read.’ – Jacqui Harwood

‘A gritty dive into the dangerous world of South African policing where the long shadow of the past hangs over the present. Clean, taut writing from a writer to watch.’ – Malla Nunn, author of the Detective Emmanuel Cooper series