Chris Marnewick grew up in the Northern Transvaal and attended high school in Potgietersrus. He practised as an advocate in Durban until recently and now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where he writes full time. After a year in the SA Navy, he studied Law at Potchefstroom and Unisa. He was admitted as an advocate in 1976, and was awarded senior counsel status in 1991. He completed an LLM degree in 1991 and obtained his PhD in 1996 at the then University of Natal. His first book was a textbook, Litigation Skills for South African Lawyers. This was followed by the novel Shepherds & Butcher, likely to be filmed, with Anant Singh working on a screenplay. In 2010, The Soldier Who Said No was published, followed by A Sailor’s Honour in 2011. His first Afrikaans book, Clarence van Buuren: Die Man Agter Die Donkerbril, was recently published. His novels marry fiction and non-fiction, the past and the present.
The Soldier Who Said No is one of these novels, moving between the South Africa of the 1980s and present-day South Africa and New Zealand. When a Bushman arrow is used in an assassination attempt on the New Zealand Prime Minister, South African bush war veteran Pierre de Villiers, who works for the International Crimes Unit in Auckland, becomes a suspect. Suffering from cancer and suspended after making a racist remark against one of his colleagues, Pierre recalls similar arrows made by !Xau, a Bushman with whom he had to flee from Angola in 1985 after refusing to follow orders during a Military Intelligence operation. Pierre has to return to South Africa to treat his cancer, find the origin of the arrow and face his past. After his first wife and children were murdered, Pierre left South Africa for the UK, where he met his second wife. They moved to New Zealand where he becomes one of the 147 South Africans in the NZ Police.
Shepherds & Butchers was published in 2008 and dealt with capital punishment. Prison warder Leon Labuschagne, who because of the emotional strain of participating in the hanging of 32 prisoners in two weeks and 164 during the year, breaks down and becomes a killer himself. Two of the characters from Shepherds & Butchers appear in The Soldier Who Said No - the narrator Johann Weber and Pierre de Villiers as the main character. The idea for the second book arose from Chris talking to a friend in New Zealand who had taken part in the Bush War in Angola, and the fact that a large number of former Recces settled in New Zealand after 1994.
A Sailor's Honour, the third novel, has links to World War II. Just when Pierre de Villier's life in New Zealand seems to be settled, his young daughter is kidnapped in Auckland and his brother-in-law, Johann Weber’s wife abducted in Durban. Johann is senior advocate at the Bar in Durban. Their common enemy involves Nazi u-boats off Africa’s coast to a sinister Third Force pulling the strings of darkest South African history.
Clarence van Buuren: Die Man Agter Die Donkerbril uses the hanging of Clarence van Buuren, 35 years old, on 10 June 1957, as theme. The evidence showed that he abducted, raped and shot Joy Aken, 18 years old, of Pinetown. He claimed until his dying day that he was innocent. The book also narrates the story of a journalist who interviewed Van Buuren moments before he was hanged, and about unanswered questions that linger after all these years. An English version of the book will be released.
The Soldier Who Said No is one of these novels, moving between the South Africa of the 1980s and present-day South Africa and New Zealand. When a Bushman arrow is used in an assassination attempt on the New Zealand Prime Minister, South African bush war veteran Pierre de Villiers, who works for the International Crimes Unit in Auckland, becomes a suspect. Suffering from cancer and suspended after making a racist remark against one of his colleagues, Pierre recalls similar arrows made by !Xau, a Bushman with whom he had to flee from Angola in 1985 after refusing to follow orders during a Military Intelligence operation. Pierre has to return to South Africa to treat his cancer, find the origin of the arrow and face his past. After his first wife and children were murdered, Pierre left South Africa for the UK, where he met his second wife. They moved to New Zealand where he becomes one of the 147 South Africans in the NZ Police.
Shepherds & Butchers was published in 2008 and dealt with capital punishment. Prison warder Leon Labuschagne, who because of the emotional strain of participating in the hanging of 32 prisoners in two weeks and 164 during the year, breaks down and becomes a killer himself. Two of the characters from Shepherds & Butchers appear in The Soldier Who Said No - the narrator Johann Weber and Pierre de Villiers as the main character. The idea for the second book arose from Chris talking to a friend in New Zealand who had taken part in the Bush War in Angola, and the fact that a large number of former Recces settled in New Zealand after 1994.
A Sailor's Honour, the third novel, has links to World War II. Just when Pierre de Villier's life in New Zealand seems to be settled, his young daughter is kidnapped in Auckland and his brother-in-law, Johann Weber’s wife abducted in Durban. Johann is senior advocate at the Bar in Durban. Their common enemy involves Nazi u-boats off Africa’s coast to a sinister Third Force pulling the strings of darkest South African history.