Recent Reads: Scrublands by Chris Hammer

My review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

A crime novel set in a small Australian town, plagued by drought.  It is  nearly one year on from when it suffered a disaster, as a priest shot 5 men outside his church, with no one knowing why.

Martin, a journalist sent to do a 'one year on' piece gets drawn in by the town and its inhabitants, and so when two bodies are discovered after a wild fire, he is involved.

This was a really evocative read, with the drought, the importance of water, and the poverty that drought can bring to a small Australian town clear.

It was a very good crime novel, and I really enjoyed the visit to Australia!

Scrublands is out now, and is available on Amazon, and everywhere else you can find books!

This was first published in Australia in 2018, and Amazon and GoodReads tells me it was a Number 1 Bestseller there!

Reading it did make me think about Nordic noir, and wonder if there could be a surge of Australian crime novels with Scrublands doing so well, and start pondering what that genre would be called, or perhaps it already has a name!  Let me know if you know!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and Headline (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!