Shadow City: New crime fiction from Ned Kelly award-winning author

by Natalie Conyer

Shortlisted for the 2025 Danger Award for Crime Fiction

Sydney, The body of a young woman is found in Chinatown. She's been beaten, tortured - and tattooed with the image of a sun. Called to the scene, Sergeant Jackie Rose asks herself whether this was a drug murder, or something else. But before her investigation can get under way, she is ordered to hand the case over to the Australian Federal Police.

Cape Town, South A local girl recruited to study in Australia has fallen off the radar. Veteran detective Schalk Lourens - recently suspended from duty - has already made plans to visit his daughter in Sydney, with emigration in mind. He decides to search for the missing girl while he is there.

Jackie and Schalk join forces, exposing a trail of corruption and crime stretching from the foreshore of the city's iconic harbour, back to South Africa and across the world.

Together the pair must navigate a minefield of deceit and manipulation set by an enemy more powerful and depraved than they can imagine. And failure isn'tan option, because not only their own futures, but those of hundreds of vulnerable young people, hang in the balance.

PRAISE FOR SHADOW CITY:
'Shadow City is tense, gritty and insightful. Natalie Conyer pulls you into a chilling world where even the truth can be fatal. A must for fans of international crime fiction.' - Emma Viskic

325 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 3, 2024

About the author

I'm a reader of everything and a crime fiction writer.

My first novel, Present Tense, is the first in the Schalk Lourens series. It won the 2020 Ned Kelly Award for best debut crime fiction.

Shadow City, the next book in the series, was published in 2024.

My third book, Finding the Bones, is due out in 2026...and a fourth is under way.

A collection of my short stories, titled The Book Club and Other Stories, was published in 2024.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a South African-born woman now living in Perth, I found Shadow City a deeply thoughtful read. Natalie Conyer's exploration of what it means to be South African, both pre- and post-apartheid, and how that identity carries across borders was one of the most compelling aspects of the novel for me. Detective Schalk Lourens' quiet reflections on his past and his shifting sense of belonging felt authentic and poignant, particularly in the way they interacted with his new surroundings in Australia. I also got a chuckle out of the line, "Why Sydney? Why not London, or LA, or Perth even?" - I’m very curious about why so many South Africans ended up in Perth of all places!

While the plot revolves around a gripping cross-continental investigation into human trafficking, I found myself more drawn to the moments of introspection than the procedural beats. I can see how some readers might find the novel unevenly paced, especially if they're looking for fast-paced crime fiction rather than a character study, but I appreciated the balance Conyer attempted. That being said, as a crime novel I do think it holds up; there were plenty of procedural elements that I could find familiarity in the generic conventions and play my favourite “what’s going to happen next” game trying to beat the fictional detectives, but there were also enough twists that I didn’t completely guess what was going to happen by the end.

The romantic subplot between the two main characters didn't feel strictly necessary. I think the novel would have stood strong without it, but it also didn't detract from my enjoyment. The ending, however, felt a bit abrupt, leaving me wanting a little more resolution or emotional fallout after such a heavy journey.

I found Shadow City to be a smart and emotionally layered read that straddles two worlds, just like its protagonist, and I think it will especially resonate with readers who carry complex cultural identities of their own. A solid crime book, and a welcome (and rare) Australian/South African read!

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking place in both Sydney, Australia and Cape Town, South Africa, author Natlie Conyer's novel is a tense and compelling story dealing with some pretty ugly stuff.

In Sydney, Detective Sergeant Jackie Rose and her partner Detective Constable Kinsella are called to a death: a young woman, bearing clear signs of several beatings and malnutrition. With little to no leads, Jackie is forced to move on to new cases.

Meanwhile, in Cape Town, Captain Schalk Lourens is suspended when a man on trial accuses him of great abuses of power and brutality during Apartheid. Though largely innocent, he decides to use his time off to visit Stella, his daughter, in Sydney. Before he leaves, he's apprised of a missing young woman whose grandmother has not heard from her for weeks after she left, on scholarship, for school in Sydney. Since he has a month in Sydney, he decides to follow up with authorities there.

When Schalke arrives in Sydney, he and Jackie compare notes, and realize that the dead girl she found is unlikely to be an isolated case, and together, the two begin delving into the situation, with Schalk's colleagues working their own connections in Cape Town, and exposing several similar missing persons cases like the one Schalk is investigating. That they are all connected, and involve international corruption and reach, begins to become apparent, with Schalk and Jackie working as fast as they can to find the hopefully still alive girl Schalk came to Australia looking for.

I was gripped by this narrative immediately. The situation posited by Conyer is heinous: manipulation and recruitment of naïve and poor young adults for what seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity in Sydney, but which is actually nightmarish coercion into a life of imprisonment and abuse.

This is the first book I've read by this author, and now I want to find the first Schalke Lourens book as I enjoyed this. Schalke proves to be a thoughtful, driven man whose entire life is upended by the hit to his reputation, but it also proves to be the very thing he needed to reconsider what he wants to do. Be an investigator, certainly, but where and how, are the questions running through his mind as he works the dangerous missing persons case.

Both he and Jackie are compelling characters, and the plot held my interest all the way to its satisfying end.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Echo Publishing for this ARD in exchange for my review.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shadow City is the first book by Natalie Conyer which I have read , and I found myself engrossed from the opening chapters.
The novel moves between Sydney and Cape Town with young people being recruited from South Africa for an opportunity to study in Australia. But when a body of a young girl is found in Sydney alarm bells begin to ring for the police who start to delve into her back ground.
The script is crisp which adds intensity to the storyline which contains modern themes of abuse, and slavery but there is some lighter parts with Detective Schalk Laurens being attracted to The Australian Sergeant Jackie Rose
So a great plot, with good strong characters, ensures the author has woven a gritty tale , which also has sub plots to work out as well , makes for an exciting thriller for the reader and I recommend this as suitable for anyone who enjoys a thriller / crime novel

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

REad paperback but not offered as an option.
Debut novel by a a cpmpetent writer.
The locations in sydney are very familiar eergo easy to 'visualise' the story.
repugnat sex trade is the premise for this gritty crime thriller.