Return to the river...
It was the worst drought since European settlement. For a decade – more in some regions – the millennium drought ravaged eastern Australia. The country’s most significant river system, The Murray-Darling, went precariously close to total ecological collapse.
Rivers ran dry, farmers went to the wall, bushfires swept the alps, sandstorms bore down upon our coastal capitals.
This was the landscape I travelled through in the summer of 2008-2009 as the drought reached its devastating peak. And this is the story of that journey – the landscapes I witnessed, the people I met, the stories I heard. The history, the culture, the climate.
First published by Melbourne University Press in 2010, this new edition takes us back to a time when climate change was suddenly made real. Read it as history; read it as prophecy: The River: A Journey Through the Murray Darling Basin.
Into the Valley...
A controversial entrepreneur is murdered in a remote mountain valley, but this is no ordinary case. Ivan and Nell are soon contending with cowboy lawyers, conmen, bullion thieves and grave robbers.
But it’s when Nell discovers the victim is a close blood relative that the past begins to take on a looming significance.
What did take place in The Valley all those years ago? What was Nell’s mother doing there, and what was her connection to troubled young police officer Simmons Burnside? And why do the police hierarchy insist Ivan and Nell stay with the case despite an obvious conflict of interest?
The Valley features a page-turning plot, intriguing characters and an evocative sense of place—where nothing is ever quite what it seems.
Events
Booking links in white.
Tuesday 20th May – 6pm – Canberra Book Launch – The River new edition – East Hotel – Canberra, ACT
Friday 13th June – 1:50pm – What’s Going on in Oz? – Capital Crime Festival – London, UK
Sunday 15th June – 11:30am – Author talk – Slaughter at Southwold – Southwold, UK
Sunday 22nd June – 9:30am – Storyfest – Ulladulla Civic Centre – Ulladulla, NSW
Wednesday 25th June – 7pm – An Audience with Chris Hammer – Bardon Bowls Club – Brisbane, Qld
Friday 27th June – noon – Dymocks Literary Lunch – Fours Seasons Hotel – Sydney, NSW
Tuesday 8th July – 6pm – In Conversation The River– Readings Hawthorn – Melbourne, Vic
Thursday 10th July – 6:30pm – Author Talk – The River – Burnside Library – Adelaide, SA
Saturday 19th July – 7pm – Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and Lasses – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival – Harrogate, UK
News
Shortlisted: BookPeople Awards
The Valley finds itself in some very distinguished company indeed: shortlisted for the BookPeople Award for fiction. And I’m blown away. Just to be listed
Scrublands: Silver premieres
The television adaptation of Silver has hit the screens on Stan in Australia and New Zealand, debuting at number one. It’s branded as Scrublands: Silver
ABIA Awards Shortlist
The Valley has been shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Award for best General Fiction. Huzzah! The ABIAs are clever – there are two fiction
The Valley longlisted
This is exciting – it’s not even 2025 yet, but The Valley has been longlisted for the prestigious 2025 Indie Book Awards, in amongst some
The Times 10 best crime books of 2024
So thrilled – and so grateful!! 🙏🙏The London Times has named ‘Cover The Bones’ as one of its top ten crime novels of the year!
The Seven makes the Ned Kelly shortlist
The Ned Kelly Awards – known fondly as ‘The Neds’ – have been an annual event for close on thirty years now, run by the
Books
The River (2010) and The Coast (2012) are Chris’ first two books – narrative non-fiction published by Melbourne University Press – click on the image to go to MUP.
Told in the first person, they tell the story of his travels through the drought-devastated Murray Darling Basin and down the east coast of Australia.
Through his travels and the people he meets, he explores issues including the environment, agriculture, climate change, indigenous heritage, colonial history, small town Australia and the importance of the bush and beach to the country’s contemporary identity.
Writing the books was a wonderful experience for Chris, teaching him so much about his craft. It also gave him the opportunity to research some of the locations that later appear in his crime fiction: the western Riverina (Scrublands); the NSW north coast (Silver); and the Barmah-Millewa Forest (The Tilt).
The multi-award winning Martin Scarsden series includes Scrublands (2018), Silver (2019) and Trust (2020). Click on the image to go to Allen & Unwin.
They follow the ongoing exploits of damaged journalist Martin Scarsden as he comes to terms with his own past, even as he solves crimes in pursuit of newspaper scoops, and builds his relationship with Mandalay Blonde.
The novels have won praise for their sense of place, their intricate plots, their colourful characters and their emotional depth.
This prize-winning and best-selling series follows experienced homicide detective Ivan Lucic and his novice partner Nell Buchanan as they contend with personal challenges even as they catch killers.
Treasure & Dirt (2021), The Tilt (2022) and The Seven (2023) are all set in the dramatic landscapes of Australia, and can be read a series or as stand-alone novels.
They are published in the UK and internationally as Opal Country, Dead Man’s Creek, and Cover The bones. Click on the image to go to Headline books.
Maps
Click on a map to enlarge, download and print!!
Each book has a map: Riversend (Scrublands); Port Silver (Silver); and Sydney (Trust) from the Martin Scarsden/Mandalay Blonde books.
And from the Ivan Lucic & Nell Buchanan series: Finnigans Gap (Treasure & Dirt/Opal Country); Tulong (The Tilt/Dead Man’s Creek); Yuwonderie (The Seven/Cover The Bones); and The Valley (The Valley/The Broken River).
They’re created by the amazing Aleksander J Potočnik. Enjoy!
chris hammer
Chris Hammer is a leading Australian crime fiction novelist, author of the internationally bestselling Martin Scarsden series: Scrublands, Silver and Trust.
Chris’s current award-winning series features homicide detectives Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic: Treasure & Dirt/ Opal Country; The Tilt/Dead Man’s Creek; The Seven/Cover The Bones; and now The Valley/The Broken River.
Scrublands was an instant bestseller upon publication in 2018, topping the Australian fiction charts.
It was shortlisted for major writing awards in Australia, the UK and the United States. In the UK it was named the Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year 2019 and won the prestigious UK Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award.
Scrublands, Silver and Trust all feature troubled journalist Martin Scarsden and his partner Mandalay Blonde, while the next four novels follow homicide detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan.
Chris’s books are well known for their atmospheric Australian settings, a range of colourful characters, intricate plots, descriptive language and emotional depth.
Before turning to fiction, Chris was a journalist for more than thirty years. He reported from more than 30 countries on six continents for SBS TV. In Canberra, roles included chief political correspondent for The Bulletin, senior writer for The Age and Online Political Editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Chris has written two non-fiction books The River (2010) – winner of the ACT Book of the Year – and The Coast (2012), published by Melbourne University Press.
He has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Charles Sturt University and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Australian National University. He lives in Canberra, Australia.
Scrublands Television
Television! The second season of Scrublands is now hitting screens around the world. It’s branded as Scrublands: Silver and is based on Silver, the second book in the Martin Scarsden & Mandalay Blonde series.
In Australia, it’s streaming on Stan from April 17th. Meanwhile, the first series is being broadcast free-to-air on the nine network and can be watched on nine’s free streaming service NineNow.
Internationally, Scrublands: Silver will again be on BBC 4 and iPlayer in the UK, and streamed on SundanceNow in the USA, as well on other outlets in different territories.
Allen & Unwin in Australia has published tie-in editions of the books, with these stunning covers.
Contacts
Australia
- Agent – Grace at Left Bank Literary
- Publicity – Bella at Allen & Unwin
- Speaking engagements – Booked Out
