Still

By: Matt Nable

Narrated by: Johnny Carr

Darwin, Summer, 1963.

The humidity sat heavy and thick over the town as Senior Constable Ned Potter looked down at a body that had been dragged from the shallow marshland. He didn't need a coroner to tell him this was a bad death. He didn't know then that this was only the first. Or that he was about to risk everything looking for answers.

Late one night, Charlotte Clark drove the long way home, thinking about how stuck she felt, a 23-year-old housewife, married to a cowboy who wasn't who she thought he was. The days ahead felt suffocating, living in a town where she was supposed to keep herself nice and wait for her husband to get home from the pub. Charlotte stopped the car, stepped out to breathe in the night air and looked out over the water to the tangled mangroves. She never heard a sound before the hand was around her mouth.

Both Charlotte and Ned are about to learn that the world they live in is full of secrets and that it takes courage to fight for what is right. But there are people who will do anything to protect themselves, and sometimes courage is not enough to keep you safe.

Still is an evocative, pause-resisting thriller from a brilliant Australian writer. If you loved The Dry and Scrublands, you will love Still.

©2021 Matt Nable (P)2021 Hachette Australia

A glimpse into Darwin’s past

At first I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this book but as Ned’s dilemma unfolded I was dragged into a story of uncompromising evil which I felt had to be resolved. Never having been to Darwin although I grew up in Queensland I enjoyed the descriptions of the fishing, and the heat as well as the people both good and bad whose lives interacted. By the end I found it a most satisfying read. Well done Matt Nable