It’s really only after the covid year of 2020 that I’ve come to realise how important writers festivals and similar events are to me. I always enjoyed them, but also thought they were a bit like the cherry on the cake. Now I think they’re far more important, almost essential. Writers spend so much time by ourselves, those solitary hours of working. It’s something I enjoy, but you can have… Read More »Sydney Writers’ Festival
January the 7th – publication day in the United Kingdom! Also Ireland and continental Europe, plus the Commonwealth and pretty much everywhere else as well. The exceptions are here in Australian and New Zealand, where Allen & Unwin have done a brilliant job since publishing it in October 2020, and the US and Canada, where unfortunately we’re still overcoming publication difficulties (I know, frustrating, right?). I’m thrilled with amazing job… Read More »Trust published in UK!
Excellent news from the UK! Silver has been named a Times/Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year for 2020. This is a great honour, and follows on from Scrublands being named a Crime Book of the Year for 2019. Huge thanks to UK publishers Headline/Wildfire who have done so much to promote the book. Here’s the whole list. You can Silver is in some pretty good company. Troubled Blood by… Read More »Crime Book of the Year!
The first review in mainstream Australian media: The Weekend Australian October 10th, three days before publication. A huge thanks to Robyn Walton (mysteriously given the by-line ‘Dalton’ here) for such a positive review. She says, among other thing: “Chris Hammer has excelled himself with Trust.” And “Hammer…delivers a thriller strong on character development, social insights and ethical issues as well as dramatic action.”
LoveReading styles itself as the UK’s leading book recommendation website, so I’m very happy and grateful that the team there has chosen Silver as one of its six books of the month. Great timing with Silver published in paperback in the UK. Here’s what the site’s Reviews Editor Liz Robsinson writes: “A cracking and class-act of a crime novel stuffed full of atmosphere and detail which skilfully sits alongside a… Read More »Book of the Month
This is such a good idea – I haven’t heard of it before. The Tandem Collective has organised a read-along of Scrublands, lasting a week, with targets for each day. This is happening in the UK. As I understand it, many of those participating are booksagrammers and other high profile readers. I’ll be interested to see what they think about it!
It’s paperback publication week for Silver, with the UK paperback (left) in stores from Wednesday and the Australian B-format available from today. The designs are similar but subtlely different. Both are wonderful. I’m very happy with both – and happy that Silver is now available to readers at a lower price.
Still more than two months to Trust’s publication day in Australia, but already there is a sense of building momentum. Apple Books have included it in their big annual pre-order promotion ‘Tomorrow’s Biggest Books’, where Trust finds itself in the ‘Blockbuster Fiction’ category. No kidding. That has to be a good omen, right? Big thanks to Apple. Link here. Some other great books to be found there as well, so… Read More »Tomorrow’s Biggest Books
The Sydney Writers’ Festival has pushed on with virtual sessions, including podcasts. Here I am ‘in-conversation’ with author and journalist Paul Daley. Enjoy! It’s been an interesting time, this lockdown. Zoom and Skype and Facetime have helped to keep communication lines open, but I can’t wait to get out and talk to people in person. Hopefully, when my new book ‘Trust’ is published in October, I’ll be able to do… Read More »Sydney Writers’ Festival
Silver has been longlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious crime writing awards, the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger for the best crime novel of the year. This is a big one, as all books published in the UK during the past year are eligible, including novels from the USA and the rest of the English-speaking world, so there’s a lot of competition! My thanks to the wonderful… Read More »UK Gold Dagger Longlist