Scrublands

November 15, 2018
A novel's opening moments are there to rivet readers' attention; this one begins with a dazzler. A parish priest stands outside his little church in the heat-soaked Australian scrublands on a Sunday morning, chatting with parishioners. He steps inside for a moment, comes back with a rifle and blows away five members of his congregation. Readers who turn pages anxious for understanding will have to wait. Instead, the narrative picks up a year later, as reporter Martin Scarsden visits the dusty, dying town where the murders took place. He's not there to investigate the still-unsolved crime but to write about how everybody is holding up. His poking about reveals a hidden marijuana farm, a plot to steal water, and a murder tricked up to look like suicide, with only occasional references to the slaughter that started the novel. This story is a mix of beautiful writing and a maddeningly slow, overly complex plot. Still, we're hooked. Who is this priest who can put a bullet through a man's neck at a hundred yards?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2019

A year after a tragedy involving an Anglican priest, journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend, Australia, to tell the story of the small town. He discovers a dying community facing drought and economic disaster while fighting the impressions of the outside world. Martin attempts to dig deeper but faces opposition, anger, and stories that contradict one another. Was the priest a pedophile? Was he a saint or a sinner? Are the police even telling the truth? Identities are uncovered, and even old tramps are not who they appear to be. Dealing with his own war zone-induced PTSD, Martin also encounters an entire town suffering from the trauma resulting from the priest's actions, bushfires, and a fatal car accident. Father Byron Swift's secrets have already changed so many lives; they will also alter Martin's. VERDICT Hammer's intricately plotted, atmospheric debut introduces the bleak Australian scrublands, an area haunted by its past. Fans of Jane Harper's Australian crime novels will welcome another author with a rich descriptive style.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

May 31, 2018
In a dying Riverina town that’s suffering a merciless drought, ‘good people fight to retain honour and dignity against unfair odds’. Shockingly, one Sunday morning, the town’s priest opens fire and guns down five parishioners before being shot dead himself by local police. This gripping opening scene immediately hooks the reader. A year later, troubled journalist Martin Scarsden arrives for an investigative piece on how the residents of Riversend have coped with the tragedy. As Martin gets to know the various town characters—each with their own secrets—more shocking revelations about the shootings come to light and further crimes and mysteries are unearthed. How are they related, if at all? Increasingly, Martin finds himself personally entangled in the lives of those he’s covering. The complexities of the narrative and its characters are mind-boggling, but always presented cogently with impressive prose and brilliant plotting from debut author Chris Hammer, who has decades of experience as a journalist. This ‘why-dunnit’ (not ‘whodunnit’), is a remarkable study of human fallibility, guilt, remorse, hope and redemption. The descriptions of landscape are often evocative in the style of Tim Winton, with the parched country-town setting reminiscent of Jane Harper’s The Dry. Hammer is an author to watch. It is hard to imagine Scrublands not being loved by all crime and mystery fans.

Scott Whitmont is the owner and manager of Lindfield Bookshop and Children’s Bookshop