Australia is home to many fine writers of crime fiction – Jane Harper, Dervla McTiernan and Margaret Hickey to name a few. But none, IMAO, are more reliable than Chris Hammer.
A Chris Hammer book will have a complex story in a detailed setting. It will have a full cast of characters – some decent, some flawed and some that are thoroughly corrupt. There’s often an outback oddball or two thrown in, and there is always a mystery built around a social or political issue that cuts to the heart of Australian society.
In The Seven, Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan find themselves investigating the murder of a local accountant whose body has turned up in an irrigation canal. Ivan and Nell’s story is woven together with two other historic timelines, which shed light on the founding of the irrigation scheme. As someone who grew up in the MIA, I enjoyed the setting, and some of the issues around irrigation, but you don’t need to be interested in either of those things to enjoy this book.
There’s an immediacy to Chris Hammer’s writing that draws you in – I’m sure his background as a journalist doesn’t hurt. The story moves at a good pace and has some unexpected twists you won’t see coming.
The Seven works as a standalone, but you might get more out of it if you read Treasure & Dirt or The Tilt first. I particularly enjoyed the way the relationship between Ivan and Nell grows and matures over the three books.
-Katrina Roe, RRL Administration Centre
