A really descriptive, atmospheric book. I could 'see' the town and 'feel' the heat and drought. The characters are lively and very human. One aspect about the book is a fight between good and evil. No-one is wholly bad - or ae they? Just as the good are not wholly good. The characters change and grow during the book. The drought is symbolic as well as real.

I loved this book - made me think of Nevil Shute - a writer I love.

Australian crime fiction is a genre i have well and truly fallen in love with.
A dried up river bed, a dying town and a massacre and that to begin with. There is so much going on in this book and none of it is good. This dying town seems to be a magnet for death and other horrors but WHY ?
It is upto journalist Martin Scarsden who is doing a follow up report on how the town has been affected since the massacre a year ago.
This book is really busy, infact there is too much going on and the book needs to be pared down. There is so much going on that there are at least two maybe even three books in this novel. Don't get me wrong this is a WHOPPER of a crime thriller just needs more editing. Still HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for the ARC of this book in return for giving an honest review.

<I><blockquote>There is something wrong with this town, as if the heat has turned it, like milk curdled by the sun.</I></blockquote>
A great start to this as a journalist returns to a town where a churchman shot 5 people a year ago for no known reason, and starts uncovering anomalies and hidden stories that begin to unravel - but at some point this tips over from nicely complex to ridiculously over-packed. As the book itself says, 'four different crimes, all taking place in and around the same drought-ravaged town' - and given that this is a miniscule village inhabited by, like, twelve people (ok, I exaggerate!), the sheer suspension of disbelief required was way above my threshold - <spoiler> 5 murders, a police shooting, two rapes/killings, another rape in the past, a fatal accident, a couple of suicides that were really killings, a tortured cat, a kidnapped baby, secret identities, a criminal biker gang, Afghanistan, an obligatory mention of jihadists that bring in the security services, drugs and a forgery/inheritance plot - phew!</spoiler>. It's such a common mistake in a rookie novelist that you'd think an agent, editor, someone would have warned that there's no need to pack the contents of about three books in one!

It's a shame as I like Hammer's writing and his quirky characterization. The names are distracting, though: Mandalay Blonde (yep that's her given name), Codger Harris, Harley Snouch - my mind snicked every time they were mentioned - and by the final couple of chapters things were so fast and furious that it's a whirlwind of lies, deceptions, new last-minute introductions and first-time mention plots. For all my niggles, the evocation of a failing town is done well.

So huge potential and I did enjoy reading this but less would have been more, to quote a cliche.

Chris Hammer joins the rising number of illustrious writers in the Aussie Noir genre, and his debut novel is a humdinger of a riveting and atmospheric crime read. It is set in the remote and isolated dying town of Riverend, surrounded by mulga scrubland. It has acquired a notorious reputation as the place where a charismatic and popular young priest, Byron Swift, inexplicably shot and killed 5 people at St James Church, only to be shot dead himself by Constable Robbie Haus-Jones. Riverend has been in the grip of a long term scorching and never ending unbearable heat with no end in sight, threatening peoples livelihoods and sanity. Amidst the background of the parched and devastated landscape, lurk desperate dangers, such as regular apocalyptic bush fires wiping out homes, livestock, and threatening human lives. Suffering from PTSD after a harrowing assignment in Gaza where he became the story, middle aged journalist, Martin Scarsden has been sent to write a human interest feature on Riversend to document how the town has fared a year after the events at St James Church.

It is meant to be a straight forward report but it turns out to be anything but. For a start, Martin is startled by the number of townsfolk that hold the priest in such high regard, including those who lost family members in the shooting spree. He meets young twentysomething single mother, Mandalay 'Mandy' Blonde, with her toddler son, Liam, running a bookshop/cafe, who hints that there is more to Swift than the paedophile he has been painted as, and encourages Swift to look deeper into the priest and what lies behind what happened at the church. Finding many locals hostile to his presence initially, Martin begins to embed himself in the community after helping fight a nightmare of a bushfire and saving a young man's life. However, events overtake Martin and Riversend, when bodies are unearthed that result in the place once again becoming the eye of a media storm with the descent of a huge number of journalists looking for the latest exclusive. Martin finds himself tested to his limits as he finds himself becoming more self aware and questioning the nature of his profession and career, and not much liking the insights he gains into himself.

Hammer gives us complex storytelling with multiple threads that include the drugs trade, biker gangs, the murders of German backpackers, rape, abuse, fraud, the intelligence services, the shootings, atonement and the repercussions of tragedies that interconnect in unexpected ways. Riversend is a seething hotbed of horror, trauma, secrets, deception and lies, but it is also a place that is beginning to steal Martin's heart as he contemplates the possibility that for the first time in his life he is in love, but numerous obstacles litter his path, not least his professional career. Hammer's characterisation is stellar with a host of characters that make an impact, not only Martin, Mandy, Fran, Byron, and others, but additionally gems that made an impression on me such as the old man, Codger, living in the remote scrublands by himself. The sweltering heat, burning into the town and land, is an overriding character in its own right, destructive and ever present, inescapable, ravenous in its appetite for devouring life. Hammer brilliantly depicts and captures the heat and its impact, a recent feature of real life contemporary Australia. This is a fantastic first novel that had me enthralled and looking forward to what Hammer writes next. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Headline for an ARC.

Australian crime fiction is quickly becoming one of my favourite genres,and this author is certainly one I would seek out. The setting of the book lends itself perfectly to the plot which centres around a journalist which is a different perspective from the usual detective/investigator angle. The choice of the main protagonists profession also becomes a major theme of the story which ends as something more than a who-dunnit. The writing and characterisation are excellent as is the sense of place - if I had to pin point something I would suggest the book seems a little over long, but aside from this niggle I would say this was an absorbing read.

This book really got under my skin and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it! It is slightly too long and I felt it would benefit from some editing but the storytelling skill, characterisation and twisty-ness of the plot were really excellent. The real star of this novel, though, is Riversend - Hammer's depiction of the place is so vivid that I felt as though I had actually visited it.

I enjoyed it even more than Jane Harper's The Dry and it deserves to be just as big a hit. I can't wait to read what Chris Hammer does next. Hope that the TV rights get snapped up.

A fantastic read but very long, it could benefit from further editing. The setting is first class, the characterisation is wonderful and I was rapidly drawn into life of a small Australian town blighted by drought. A multi layered read with plenty of twists and turns to keep you engaged, rape, murder, drug gangs, eccentric characters, even romance. What more could you ask for. Will certainly read more by the author.

This is a long book, a brilliant book but looong. Nevertheless I throughly enjoyed it. It sucked me in at the first chapter and spat me out at the last. Yes it could have further editing but a great read. I will seek out more from Chris Hammer,

This is a great book, thought it was slow to start but then it was all action, so many twists and turns, a real page turner. Reading the book I felt I was actually there, it was so atmospheric. Some of the descriptions in the book were not for the faint hearted but overall a great book.
#NetGalley
#Scrublands

3.5 ⭐

If you ever go to Australia on holiday DO NOT go to this scrublands place... because it's all nutters,murderers,gangs,drugs,rapists... I mean I could go on... the mind boggles at the crimes and misfortunes (Bush fire anyone?) That befell our main character Martin once he entered the town.
At times it felt too much.... but I found it really interesting to read about small town in drought... and just small town politics.
A lot happened in this book,but thankfully it was explained well.

If you're an Australian author who sets a crime novel in the rural backblocks, particularly during one of the all-too-regular droughts, it's now inevitable that your book will be compared to Jane Harper's terrific, award-hoarding debut THE DRY - widely considered 'the crime novel' of last year.

So former television foreign correspondent Chris Hammer is facing something of a double-edged sword with the release of his first novel, SCRUBLANDS. Harper's success has the crime world casting its eyes downunder, opening doors for other writers just as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid provided a beachhead for Tartan Noir, and Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson did for Scandi-crime. But then other 'Terror Australis' (Australian crime) tales will get kneejerk comparisons to THE DRY, especially if like in Hammer's case, the setting is the tinder-dry landscapes of the Australian bush.

Let's just front-foot things: SCRUBLANDS may share a similar setting to Harper's debut, but Hammer's first novel is completely it's own beast. This is no copycat or coat-tailing effort. SCRUBLANDS meshes sociological insights, literary stylings, and a multi-layered crime tale into an epic novel that’s simply superb. I read it a few weeks ago, and now it's been released I'm seeing all sorts of 'crime novel of the year' type hype building. For me, it's certainly in the conversation.

Martin Scarsden is sent to drought-stricken Riversend by his Sydney editor, ostensibly to write a human-interest tale about the town’s recovery a year after a church shooting, but also to gauge his own recovery after a near-death experience in the Middle East. Some locals tell Martin there’s more to the story than the ‘paedophile priest’ narrative that followed the shooting. When the bodies of two backpackers are found the national media descends, messily picking at the dying town’s carcass. Can Martin find the truth among all the lies and manipulations, from townsfolk and various authorities?

There is a lot going on in this book, which is more absorbing than page-whirring. Hammer draws readers in with an unusual tale that has a lot of layers and interwoven stories. The inciting incident of the one-year anniversary of a hard-to-explain shooting is just a small part of what the book becomes.

For me, Hammer brought rural Australia, its towns and people and issues faced, to vivid life with a sweat-inducing authenticity. While this is Hammer's first novel, the experienced correspondent has actually written non-fiction books , including one, THE RIVER, where he takes readers "on a journey through Australia's heartland, following the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin, recounting his experiences, his impressions, and, above all, stories of the people he meets along the way".

It's clear that Hammer has used his time spent researching THE RIVER and experiencing first-hand the lives of those living in such areas while building the world of SCRUBLANDS. There's an eclectic selection of small-town characters, each who are pleasingly layered. Even if some are a little larger-than-life or introduced in highly unusual ways, they don't feel cartoonish. There's a reality here.

So while comparisons to THE DRY are unavoidable, for me Hammer’s debut reaches even further, taking the baton from the great Peter Temple. SCRUBLANDS is crime writing at its finest.

Scrublands is another top read of this year for me, entirely consuming from the moment I started it, beautifully descriptive writing in both character and setting plus an extraordinarily immersive story.

Martin is an engaging character with realistic fault lines running through his personality- as he gets more and more involved with the small town, so indeed does the reader. The author captures the sense of place wonderfully, the eclectic occupants facing tragedy in their own ways. You can feel the heat and the dark underbelly of a town collapsing, the emotional core of Scrublands is addictively traumatic..

There’s a strong mystery element with subtle twists that leads you to a stunningly edgy conclusion, the themes at the heart of Scrublands are cleverly thought provoking. When I finished it I felt like I had left a little of myself in Riversend, certainly I think this is a novel I will return to.

Nuanced and strangely beautiful, Scrublands is a brilliant read and comes very highly recommended from me.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for an advance copy of Scrublands, a stand alone novel set in the bush town of Riversend, featuring journalist Martin Scarsden.

Martin Scarsden travels to Riversend to write a feature on how the town is coping a year after the local priest shot 5 residents before committing suicide by cop. Despite his brief Martin soon finds himself becoming part of the story himself as he investigates the motive behind the killing spree.

Wow, what a read. I thoroughly enjoyed Scrublands, a lyrical, unflinching slice of Australian rural noir with a riveting plot. I was glued to the pages from start to finish, even though it is a long read, as there is never a dull moment in the entire novel. I found it hard to believe that it is a debut as it is so accomplished. It is told in the third person exclusively from Martin's point of view which makes for an easy read as the reader can commit their attention without being distracted. Just as well something is easy because the plotting is fairly intricate with several layers and even more lies, obfuscation and misdirection and requires concentration. It is not, however, merely a tale of Martin sorting through what he's told to reach the truth it is also incident packed (I hesitate to say action although it is there too), much of it unexpected, some of it shocking.

The plot is amazing but that's not the be all and end all of the novel. The descriptions are also powerful. I felt that I could feel the heat and grit of the location as I read and Riversend, a town of 800 residents, comes to life authentically in its decline, dilapidation and sense of no hope, not so different, I imagine, from many other rural locations. Equally the characters are well drawn. Martin, in his 40s and suffering from PTSD, finds himself changing as the novel progresses. His personal journey makes for interesting reading. I also loved the portrayal of the police and the press. Mr Hammer does not pull his punches. To be honest I love everything about Scrublands and can easily say that it is the best novel I have read this year. I have, therefore no hesitation in not only recommending it as an excellent read but encouraging everyone to try it.