Chris Hammer Books In Order

Publication Order of Ivan Lucic & Nell Buchanan Books

Publication Order of Martin Scarsden Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Chris Hammer is an Australian author of fiction. He used to work in journalism before coming over to the literary world and writing books set in or featuring his native land of Australia.

Before writing, he worked as a journalist. In the course of his thirty plus year long time in journalism, he split up his career in between the coverage of Australian federal politics as well as international affairs.

He has also worked for SBS TV as a traveling foreign correspondent for many years for Dateline, the channel’s program covering current affairs. Chris has been to six continents and reported from over thirty countries in the process. The writer also formerly worked for The Bulletin as their chief political correspondent as well as for The Age as a senior political journalist.

Chris became an officially published author for the first time with the release of his book The River. The book was a nonfiction novel and it was released in 2010 to positive receptions and critical acclaim. It was also the recipient of an award from the ACT for the category ‘Book of the Year’ as well as being considered and making the short list for several other awards.

Chris Hammer attended Charles Sturt University where he studied journalism and graduated with his Bachelor’s degree. He attended Australian National University and graduated with his master’s degree in the field of international relations. He resides in Canberra, Australia, with his wife and their two children. He is the author of the 2018 fictional novel The Scrublands.

The Scrublands is the debut work of fiction from talented author Chris Hammer. Read this epic novel that critics are saying is the story about rural Australia that they have been waiting for.

In one country town, its isolation means that it can be particularly vulnerable to the whims of Mother Nature. This town has been crippled by the continual state of drought it is trapped in. Things are getting desperate, but no one sees what happens next coming. One young priest that is known for being a well liked member of the community decides to take a gun to his church.

The Priest decides to open fire on the very members of his congregation that he is supposed to lead and protect. Something has gone horribly wrong. Is it the pressure of the drought or is there more going on here than meets the eye? The priest ends up taking out five of his own parishioners before someone manages to take him out by shooting him dead.

This was about a year back. Now a journalist has shown up to write a feature now that it’s been twelve months since the tragedy has passed. Martin Scarsden has his own past to contend with, one that has left him deeply troubled. He has come to Riversend for the purpose of journalism; a partial duty to the job and a partial obligation to make money to live on.

A lot of the local people have no problem talking to Martin about the event. They tell him stories about the priest and the things that happened leading up to that fateful shooting, but the thing about it is– they don’t at all match up to the explicit set of events that was put in the newspaper. Martin works for the very same paper that did the investigation and the accepted version and the version that he is hearing of events are just not matching up at all. None of it makes sense.

If Martin is hearing two very different versions of events, then either one of the stories is a lie or both have elements of truth and falsehood. Martin is starting to get confused, and his feeling of paranoia is going crazy. Some of the local people on top of it all are trying to get him to investigate the real motivation behind the rampage of the priest– someone that very well could have been the last person that anyone in this small community expected to do something like this.

At the same time, the journalist believes that he is making a good amount of progress when it comes to the case. That is, until a new development decides to pop up that is destined to just make jaws drop to the floor. This change of events is destined to be one of the biggest news stories that the continent of Australia has ever seen.

Just like that, all of the journalists and media you could ever imagine turn their heads toward Riversend and descend upon it like locusts upon a crop field. Now Martin is starting to wonder how he’s going to break any of this wide open if there’s simply too much chaos happening in the town in general.

The more that he looks into the shooting and the details of that event, the more that Martin starts to get interested in this case. All of it has become very personal to him, and it would mean a lot to him to try and solve this case once and for all and put it to rest behind him.

This journalist has his own set of demons to wrestle with, but he cannot help being obsessed with this case and finding out the truth. He feels that if he can just put enough effort into it, he might finally get somewhere. Gradually becoming even more immersed in the case, Martin starts to wonder if there is anything that he will not risk to get the answers that he needs– including his own life.

Things are becoming more risky and darker with every passing minute. As things really start to get cagey, the journalist is forced to wonder whether this will be his final feature. With dark secrets and complexity building, Martin knows that there are people or forces out there that may be willing to do whatever it takes in order to keep certain town secrets under wraps for as long as possible.

Can Martin crack the case wide open? You’re going to have to pick up this awesome thriller from dynamic fiction writer Chris Hammer to find out!