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    Scrublands
    Scrublands
    Scrublands
    Audiobook13 hours

    Scrublands

    Written by Chris Hammer

    Narrated by Rupert Degas

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In this searing, “indisputable page-turner” (Associated Press), a town’s dark secrets come to light in the aftermath of a young priest’s unthinkable last act—in the vein of The Dry and Where the Crawdads Sing.

    In Riversend, an isolated Australian community afflicted by an endless drought, a young priest does the unthinkable: he kills five parishioners before being taken down himself.

    A year later, journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend. His assignment: to report how the townspeople are coping as the anniversary of the tragedy approaches. But as Martin meets the locals and hears their version of events, he begins to realize that the accepted explanation—a theory established through an award-winning investigation by Martin’s own newspaper—may be wrong.

    Just as Martin believes he’s making headway, a shocking new crime rocks the town. As the national media flocks to the scene, Martin finds himself thrown into a whole new mystery.

    What was the real reason behind the priest’s shooting spree? And how does it connect to other deaths in the district, if at all? Martin struggles to uncover the town’s dark secrets, putting his job, his mental state, and his very life at risk.

    For fans of James Lee Burke, Jane Harper, and Robert Crais, Scrublands is “a gritty debut...sensitively rendered” (The New York Times Book Review) that marks Chris Hammer as a stunning new voice in crime fiction.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 8, 2019
    ISBN9781508277422
    Author

    Chris Hammer

    Christopher Hammer lives in Australia and was a journalist for over thirty years. As a foreign correspondent, he reported from more than thirty countries on six continents, as well as covering Australian national politics for television, newspapers, and magazines. Following the breakout success of his debut novel, Scrublands, he now writes fiction full time.

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    Reviews for Scrublands

    4/5

    236 ratings23 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very enjoyable. The narration is excellent and really brings this story to life.
    • 5/5
      Complex plot that unravels steadily with clear conclusion. Interesting characters, develop over the course of the book and excellent description of a drought stricken Australia farmland in the height of summer. Really interested in reading more by this author.
    • 5/5
      WOW!! Great story. Complex and complicated. Atmospheric. Deeply drawn characters. Unbelievable narration. Did I say narration? More like a command performance!! Loved the Australian accent. ?.
      Will keep my eyes open for more books by this author.
    • 5/5
      I know I am way late to the party but here goes:
      I bought this book she it came out, and held off reading it because of the rave reviews I figured I would read it when I wanted a sure thing. Then it got buried in the to be read pile- which pets face it isn’t a pile but its own bookcase, now packed up, so when it was on sale or I had a coupon I bought it in paperback.
      Wow amazing this is the authors first book fiction book. Talk about peeling back the layers of an onion!
      Every time you think you know what has happened and what will happen a new thread or layer is added in.
      From the very beginning you can feel how hot dry and miserable the town is, and the story never lets up. Damaged and desperate people will do crazy things, and this town is full of them.
      The author has a new book coming this spring and I can’t wait! I definitely won’t let it sit around this time.
    • 4/5
      Twisty plot, engaging writing, and fascinating characters—I enjoyed reading it.
    • 4/5
      A big call from me - but I’d give this one 4 1/2 stars if I could (have I mentioned I don’t like the Goodreads rating system??). This Australian crime novel was engaging from start to finish. Well drawn characters, several intriguing mysteries and haunting depictions of life in a drought stricken country town made for a compelling read.
      This one is going to the top of my recommended reads list (and even toppling Jane Harper’s novel, The Dry, off it’s perch).
    • 3/5
      Generally this was an excellent murder mystery, much in the same vein as Jane Harper's novels. Unfortunately, it dragged in the middle for quite a while. This story of an Australian journalist who becomes embroiled with a town's history and the town's residents is intriguing and well written, with good character development. If it hadn't dragged out the plot in the middle with twists and turns to throw the reader off, it would have rated 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      Crime-fiction done well - interesting plot, believable characters, and great atmosphere from a dying rural town.The book is well-paced, the crime scenario is a little over the top, but still plausible enough for a reader to buy into.It's quite some time since I've enjoyed a compulsive page-turner as much as this.
    • 5/5
      I have to say, I quite enjoyed this one. Well characterized, and a twisty, turny plot that constantly kept me wondering, I really enjoyed the complexity of this one, and how the author made the Australian scrublands almost another character in the book.

      Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      2.5 stars. I started this book with excitement and really expected to love it. The opening was wonderful - the Australian setting, the pacing, and the mysterious crime were so engaging. But about one third of the way in it started to lose me and only got worse from there. Too many characters, so many intermingled crimes with overly complicated plotting, and then a silly love story thrown in for good measure. I almost didn’t finish it at several points.

      On the other hand, I really do think this author has potential and knows how to write. The main character was well drawn and there was an interesting theme on the seedy and voyeuristic world of journalism. Perhaps the authors next book will be tighter.
    • 4/5
      really liked the Aussie descriptions - made me feel in a pained sorry outback town, characters great feeling, enjoyed the twists. Well worth the read.
    • 2/5
      This is a crime novel set in a small town in the Australian outback. Reporter Martin Scarsden is sent to Riversend to do a human interest story one year after the town priest, Byron Swift, shot and killed 5 of his parishioners as they waited on the church steps for Sunday services to begin. Martin decides to dig into the "whys" behind the tragedy, and in so doing opens a can of worms.For me the best part of this book is the evocation of the dust and heat of the outback, as well as the characters who inhabit such environs. This is the author's first mystery novel (he is a journalist), and it shows. He throws in everything, including the kitchen sink, and it all ultimately borders on the ridiculous. The names he chooses for some of his characters grate, as well. The beautiful love interest is named Mandalay Blonde (really--to me it sounds like the name of a hair dye dreamed up on Madison Avenue), and the town drunk, (and possible bad guy) is named Harley Snouch. Items, events, themes touched on in the book include, PTSD, Brush Fires, Building Fires, Animal Torture, Kidnapping, Human Torture, Drugs, Organized Crime, Bikers, Rape, Police Murder, Australian CIA, Afghan War, the Middle East, and much more. The basic idea was good, but the book lacked focus, and in the end I don't think we got a satisfactory answer to why the priest murdered 5 people.2 stars
    • 3/5
      I think mostly this book just wasn’t my style. I didn’t connect with the main character and the whole thing felt kind of like an Australian bro adventure. That being said, I did think the mystery was pretty engaging, and I liked the setting. Also I think Mandy def could have done better. Leave the scrublands before you pick a new boyfriend, lady!
    • 4/5
      This was working brilliantly for me up to the point where Martin gets sacked by his newspaper. I was surprised by the author's ability to make me empathize with a journalist (I am usually firmly on the side of the police) and enjoyed Martin's interactions with the various people he interviewed.However, once he got together with Goffing, to really get to the bottom of things, the plot became more complicated and less believable. It also slowed down a lot. The ending tied things up neatly, but I suppose I had hoped for something simpler and more devastating somehow. I could have done without the 'romance' with Mandy.Nevertheless excellent.
    • 3/5
      This book won a CWA award for the best crime novel by a first-time author, but it is deeply flawed. The female characters, including the main female character Mandalay Blonde (really?) are victims. Mandalay is, of course, beautiful, as befits a main female character who is the love interest of the tired middle-aged reporter, Martin Scarsdale. Wish fulfilment for the ageing reporter who wrote the book! Most of the other male characters are two-dimensional collections of quirks. The action takes place in an imaginary small town in south-west NSW, in the Riverina. It's summer (of course!), and there's a drought. The town is dying. The locals are depressed, which is reasonable because there are so many vicious criminals and psychopaths around that they must be scared witless. A year ago, the local Anglican priest, all dressed up in his vestments with the sun shining on his cross, shot and killed five parishioners with a high-powered rifle. Scarsdale, racked with PTSD from an incident in the Middle-East, has been sent by his editor to follow up on the mysterious priest and the aftermath of his crime.Scrublands has enough plots and sub-plots for two or three books. The ending is a ridiculous cliche. It romps along because there is so much going on, but overall it's a great disappointment.
    • 5/5
      ““Martin, there’s a better story, you know. Better than wallowing in the pain of a town in mourning.’‘And what’s that?’‘Why he did it.””Journalist Martin Scarsden has been sent to the rural community of Riversend to report on how it is faring a year on from the day the town’s priest stood on the church steps and shot dead five men. No one is quite sure why he did it, though speculation suggested Byron Swift, the charismatic priest, was about to be outed as a paedophile and murdered the men to silence his accusers. Local bookstore owner and single mother, Mandalay Blonde, is adamant there is another explanation, and urges Martin to investigate.Martin, still reeling from a recent brush with death in the Middle East while on assignment, would rather just do his job and get out, but as he gathers material for his story, instinct tells him that Mandy is right. Scrublands is a thrilling debut novel from Chris Hammer, a journalist of thirty years experience. A gripping mystery, with appealing characters and an atmospheric setting, you are sure to find yourself engrossed from the first page.“Time to find something else to do between here and oblivion.”Martin Scarsden is a well-crafted and interesting protagonist. After a harrowing experience in the Middle East, he isn’t sure he has the stomach for investigative journalism anymore, yet he can’t ignore the inconsistencies he uncovers. In part Martin is able to find answers simply by being in the right place at the right time, and earning the trust of a few select locals, including town Constable Robbie Haus-Jones. Perhaps unwisely, he becomes intimately involved with Mandalay, adding another layer of complication to his investigation, but it’s clear that the connections Martin makes with the townspeople encourages him to seek the truth, revealing a man, who despite his flaws, has integrity and heart.“‘Every time I think we’re getting somewhere, it slips through our fingers. You get that feeling?’”The mystery at the heart of Scrublands is complex and compelling. What possible reason could a priest have for murdering five people in cold blood? Everybody has secrets, and as Martin digs for the truth they begin to unravel, exposing Byron Swift’s motive, a string of deceits, and a stunning conspiracy. Hammer handles the multiple threads well, though at times the story can feel a little crowded.“The heat is worse. Yesterday’s wind has turned hot and ugly, gusting in from the north-west, propelling fine particles of dust and carrying the threat of fire. The very country Martin is driving through looks sick: anaemic trees, spindly shrubs and, between them, more dirt than grass. He’s driven from the black soil of the flood plain into the Scrublands, a huge peninsula of mulga scrub where there is no soil, just the red granular earth, like an oversized ants’ nest.“Hammer evokes the town, it’s people, and the landscape with beautifully descriptive phrasing. It is the height of summer, Riversend, as a victim of the seemingly endless drought, is a dying town surrounded by a dying landscape. With a population of only a few hundred, those that remain are barely able to hold body and soul together.I raced through Scrublands in one sitting, captivated by Chris Hammer’s vividly rendered tale of duplicity, betrayal, and murder. An impressive crime novel, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.
    • 4/5
      From the very beginning, Chris Hammer's Scrublands grabbed me by the throat and drew me right into the heart of the story. For one thing, I love reading books written by people with a literal as well as a poetic understanding of heat. Must be because I've lived in the Sonoran Desert for many years. But it was also the story itself that wouldn't turn me loose. Why would a young priest-- one who's well-liked by almost everyone in the community-- take a rifle and murder five people?There are many things to ponder in Scrublands. Martin's own PTSD from an assignment in the Mideast. How PTSD has affected the entire area around Riversend for years (a section that contains some of the best writing in the entire book). And then there's the ambiguity of the town's name. Is it River Send or River's End? Yes, there are many things to think about, just as there's an excellent story to enjoy.The solution to the murder of the backpackers came as more of a surprise than it should have, primarily because the priest's story took center stage. This book was racing full-out to my Best Reads of 2019 list when it faltered yards before the finish line. What happened? When the story was being wrapped up at the end, there were just too many people with too many motivations. I almost felt as though I needed a scorecard. Be that as it may, Scrublands is still a cracking good read that I certainly recommend. I look forward to other books by Chris Hammer.
    • 3/5
      Like the fictional village of St. Mary Mead or the county of Midsomer, there is a lot of crime in Riversend. Don’t move there is my advice. But since the town itself is dying, not just citizens and backpackers, there isn’t much fear of that. And that’s what I’m on the fence about. Do I applaud the writer for not making everything one big conspiracy, or do I scoff at there being so much murderous mayhem in a town hardly anyone lives in? It’s a tough call. The writing is good and the story moves along in a way that is plausible, but convoluted. Luckily for us, Martin gives us many summings-up along the way. Normally I don’t like that kind of thing, but it was useful with this book (especially since it was an audio). Unfortunately the most prominent female character is basically a wish-fulfillment vehicle - something for the hero to screw, woo and rescue. Sigh.
    • 4/5
      Scrublands, the almost desert like territory outside of a small rural town in Australia. Where the village priest shot five men from the steps of his church, and no one has figured out why he did it. Where his friend and local cop then shot the priest. Where rumors have spread, but few solid answers are known. Where a reporter with a history is sent to write a feature a year later focusing on how the town has recovered or not.A longish book, a slow moving, detailed story, and I loved it. Martin, the reporter finds himself drawn into the lives of the this town, the mystery of the why, and this will embroil him into things he never thought possible. Uncover some long standing secrets and meet some of the town misfits, suffering tragedies of their own. The author does a great job showing how reporters descend on a town, like locusts, when there is a story to uncover. How what they write, right or wrong, has such power, often eliciting more harm than help.Like Jane Harper's, The Lost man, things are uncovered at their own pace, each revealization bringing new questions, new paths of investigation. In fact tone and setting have some similiarities, but here there is more than one family involved. A terrific story, with some unique characters and a mystery that turns into several. ARC from Edelweiss
    • 4/5
      I’ll say straight away that I liked this book and would read more by this author. There were a few things that I didn’t care for but overall, what a great plot. Anyone can read from the book cover/descriptor the story of a priest who guns down 5 men in front of his church. The journalist, Martin Scarsden, arrives in town to report on how the residents are coping a year after the tragedy. Martin is suffering from PTSD after an incident in the Gaza strip, his editor sending him out on this story to give him a chance to get back in the journo game. Why would an admired priest turn killer?Best I can describe the way the story unfolds is to think of a nesting doll. There are layers and layers of stories that intertwine, the residents’ dark secrets, the greed, guilt and love and motivations of the characters. There are multiple crimes that are revealed in this investigative journalist’s report.Some of the character names are a hoot – you have Harley Snouch and Mandalay “Mandy” Blonde who are supporting characters.I’m learned about bush fires in the Scrubland, how they work, quite different from a house fire. Smoke inhalation gets you in a house fire but a bushfire flat out cooks you. This was addressed in another Australian book I enjoyed, Jane Harper’s debut book The Dry. The scenery described is almost apocalyptic, the land has a harshness and character of its own.What I didn’t care for was how the character Codger Harris was introduced. He’s waaaay out in the Scrubland where it’s dry and extremely hot. When Martin arrives at Codger’s dilapidated house he finds the old man inside, naked and masturbating. Sorry but that part just didn’t fit into the story, it didn’t blend and it was an unnecessary detail to introduce us to Codger. It was established how unbearably hot it is, so much so that Codger didn’t wear clothes in this isolated part of the scrubland. By the way, he is an integral part of this story and has his own interesting past which dovetails with the ending.This book is the first one for the Aussie Author Challenge. It could cover the male author or new author category. Also linking with Girlxoxo for the January Monthly Motif – “category new to me author.”
    • 4/5
      Chris Hammer wastes no time grabbing your attention in Scrublands, the new thriller set in a parched Australian landscape. A young priest commits a deadly act, tearing apart a small town and forever changing the lives of everyone there. Nearly a year later, journalist Martin Scarsden shows up to write a piece on how the town is coping. Riversend is a town on the edge of collapse, besieged by both drought and tragedy. As Scarsden begins talking to people for his story, what he finds surprises him. The priest, who was accused of being a pedophile before the deadly events, is remembered fondly by some. The accusations not universally believed. Martin digs into the story and even as what he finds confuses him, another tragedy hits the town. Martin is on the scene and scoops everyone, but he may have his facts wrong. Now he is not only covering the story, but he is also part of it. The media descends and the nation’s eyes are focused on Riversend once again, and the truth may be more sensational than anyone could have imagined.Chris Hammer puts together a crackling story filled with fascinating and tragic characters. His evocative description of the drought and the scorching heat paint such a vivid picture it actually makes you thirsty. The characters and the town itself are so beautifully rendered that you can imagine it as well as your own hometown. Martin Scarsden has troubles from his past that he is working through even as he tries to unravel the truth of what happened in Riversend. He is at odds with himself as he tries to retain journalistic distance while being sucked into events and the lives of the people in the town. He serves as a proxy for the reader who is skillfully drawn into the story, each new bit of information changing what you thought you knew. The dry, dusty, tinderbox of a landscape is a perfect metaphor for the town’s tragedy. One spark away from igniting their pain all over again.Hammer’s background as a journalist has honed his writing skills to a fine degree, making this fiction debut a must-read. It is a satisfying mystery, filled with drama and tragedy, forging an emotional connection you won’t soon forget. I am once more impressed by the wave of Australian authors who are writing some of the most interesting thrillers around. Do yourself a favor and pick up Scrublands. It may end up being one of the best things you’ll read all year.I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.
    • 5/5
      This novel surprised me with the complexity of the plot. It weaves a number of contemporary threads into the narrative. Some of these are revealed only as Martin Scarsend begins to investigate the ongoing impact of the tragic events that took place in Riversend nearly a year earlier.Scarsend himself is "damaged goods" but his boss has sent him to write a human interest story which will perhaps help him get over the trauma he has suffered. Nothing prepares him for the heat of the drought stricken town and for the fact that no-one can tell him why the priest shot five locals.
    • 3/5
      Two main characters lack believability.