Chris Hammer is our October feature author.
If you haven’t discovered Chris Hammer yet, now is a good time!
His new title Treasure & Dirt is the fourth novel from the Australian journalist. The hard copy is coming soon to the libraries but if you don’t want to wait, we already have plenty of copies available in electronic (eBook and audio) format, and you can find them here.
If you haven’t yet discovered the author, we recommend starting with his trilogy featuring the lead character Martin Scarsden, a journalist who is caught up in a series of dramas. Check them out below!
The series begins in an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself. A year later, troubled journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. But the stories he hears from the locals about the priest and incidents leading up to the shooting don't fit with the accepted version of events his own newspaper reported in an award-winning investigation. Martin can't ignore his doubts, nor the urgings of some locals to unearth the real reason behind the priest's deadly rampage.
For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping. He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again. Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days has been brutally murdered, and Mandy is the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer.
Trust is the final book in the Martin Scarsden trilogy. Martin Scarsden's new life seems perfect, right up until the moment it's shattered by a voicemail: a single scream, abruptly cut off, from his partner Mandalay Blonde. Racing home, he finds an unconscious man sprawled on the floor and Mandy gone. Someone has abducted her. But who, and why? So starts a twisting tale of intrigue and danger, as Martin probes the past of the woman he loves, a woman who has buried her former life so deep she has never mentioned it.
Author portrait photo credit: "Author Chris Hammer, One Book One Wagga 2019" by waggalibrary is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0