Still was released some months ago but if you haven’t read it yet then get a hurry on because this book by Northern Beaches writer, actor, and former rugby league player, Matt Nable, is gripping.
I read Still when it was first released but it was a speed read because it reeled me in and I was desperate to find out whodunnit! The second read was recent and gave me the luxury of enjoying Matt’s talent at conveying the Northern Territory landscape. I have never been to the NT but through Matt’s writing all my senses were on high alert – I could see what Matt’s characters saw, feel it, smell it and experience the discomfort of the heat and the beauty of the intense colours. It reminded me of how I felt reading Jill Kerr Conway’s The Road from Coorain many years ago where in the early parts of that book she transported me to the windswept, drought haunted acres in the Australian outback where her story began.
Set in Darwin in 1963 the intense heat and humidity is so real that even though I read it in my freezing cold abode during winter and with rain pelting down, I could still relate to the horrendous and relentless extreme heat and its discomfort. This book is a crime thriller of the highest quality. It’s got the lot – shady government officials, bad coppers, a good copper, racism in the extreme, macho men who make the feminist in me want to kick them where it hurts, corruption, seriously despicable people and hard to solve crimes. It’s also got humour, tough men who ultimately reveal their vulnerability, strong women and the extraordinary landscape of the Northern Territory – it’s its own character and Matt writes “place” with exquisite care and beauty.
Writers who can write place as well as they write their characters, especially in the crime genre, are quite rare. Matt excels at both. There are a lot of characters in Still. Matt develops them all to a level that ensures you know them. You get a vivid sense of their appearance, their speech, what makes them tick and how repugnant some of them are. Every character is quite complex, just like people are in the real world, and this makes them even more relatable.
So what’s this book about? A mysterious Aboriginal death, a copper who knows there’s more to the death than his Senior Sergeant is letting on, a crooked mayor and his despicable priest brother, underhand deals, more deaths, simmering racial tensions and extreme drinking.
Another Northern Beaches writer, Thomas Keneally, has been justifiably supportive of Matt’s writing talent and encouraged him to keep at it. Thomas Keneally showed his support when the book was released and joined Matt at Writer’s Festivals and the book’s launch. This type of support in our ultra-competitive world speaks volumes of both men. Keneally said of Still, “You will yourself fret, sweat and ache for Nable’s two imperfect main characters for whom you will wish redemption.”
Still would make an excellent movie or miniseries. The characters are fully shaped and the dialogue sounds so realistic that it would take little reworking. It’s better than Mystery Road. Come on Screen Australia, hop to it!
Get your copy of Still from Humphreys at Manly or any good bookshop.