In Matt Nable’s absorbing, if not slightly unevenly paced crime novel “Still,” Senior Constable Ned Potter discovers the body of an Aboriginal man face down in the shallow edge of a swamp.
The man has been viciously beaten and shot twice — and nobody seems to care. Not Potter’s colleagues in the small-town constabulary, nor its mayor, or its citizenry. This is early-sixties Darwin, and the town — like the country — is mired in prejudice. Racism doesn’t simmer under the surface; it’s ablaze. And Potter’s not convinced he has the courage to make a stand. If anything, he’s feeling the pressure to acquiesce to the demands of the corrupt forces in charge.
Charlotte Clark is increasingly discontent with her lot in life. At 23, she is married to one of its ne’er do well’s, destined to remain shackled to a man and town she has lost all affection for, with dreams of what might await beyond the borders of the Territory. A chance meeting with a stranger offers an opportunity to escape the life she has; but not necessarily a life society will understand or accept.
Nable is a clean storyteller whose prose is unembroidered with philosophical asides. He has a filmic approach, perhaps a tip of the cap to his acting career and a lifetime reading scripts. “Still” bounces from scene to scene, cutting between a clutch of well-drawn characters, but principally Ned and Charlotte. It’s not quite a mystery like “The Dry” or “Scrublands,” as the antagonists are exposed in the omniscient third person narration early on; it’s more an exploration of morality and corruption, its tension derived from the readers’ desire to see the bad guys brought to justice. The line between cop and criminal has never been so opaque.
The first half of “Still” is superb, Nable ably sketching his characters, layering his plot, and pockmarking his text with evocative descriptions of the disparate landscape, equal parts lush and rough. Its final act wobbles faintly under the weight of all that’s built before it, as the narrative jumps weeks, then months ahead in time, offering some interesting revelations, but galloping forward with such abandon, the narrative loses some of its earlier elasticity. But Nable sure knows how to keep the pages turning, and “Still” is a welcome and exciting addition to Outback Noir.
ISBN: 9780733644740
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 336
Available: 26th May 2021
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Simon McDonald 
This sounds excellent.
The book is set in 1963. Television didn’t arrive in Darwin till 1971. How could Charlotte be watching.
Yes, Julia, I agree completely! Not just TV but also the railway which is touted in the book as going to Adelaide when, at that time, it only went as far as Larrimah!
I grew up in Darwin between 1958 and 1968 and for me this was a most disappointing piece of work. The research Nable has put into it is practically non-existent.
It seems pretty obvious to me that if a writer is going to base a novel in a place that place needs to be extensively researched in terms of geography, history and culture and then the characters worked up in that space. Nable places a very negative spin on the reality of Indigenous/white relationships. I believe that, in reality, it was by no means that clear. I have old acquaintances, Darwin residents now for many years, who have maintained strong friendships with those they grew up with – we were a very cosmopolitan community. Certainly there was discrimination but I don’t believe to the extent that Nable contends. I don’t know about the Darwin of today.