Treasure & Dirt
Chris Hammer
Reviewed by Helen
This is my first Chris Hammer story and it won’t be my last, I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller, the death of an opal miner in Finnigans Gap has Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic sent to the small outback town to find the killer, here he meets young and newly appointed detective Nell Buchannan and they uncover a multitude of evidence that could point in many directions.
Ivan and Nell are shocked at what they find in the mine owned by Jonas McGee the murdered miner and there are a lot of questions to be answered, was he dead before he was crucified and now the investigations starts, asking questions trying to find motive, there is a lot to uncover. They dig deep and there are many trails to follow, billionaire mining magnates, new rare earth mines a cult in the town and the leader politically linked, ratters to find, the trails are many.
Ivan uncovers a death from the past that his old partner, now being forced into retirement never found out what really happened to the young man back then, is that somehow linked to this murder? Then a drug bust in the town that puts Nell in a precarious situation, a detective from internal standards arrives investigating Ivan and then Nell as well, this adds to the tension created by the investigation.
This is a very good criminal thriller with many twists and turns, fabulously written it had me turning the pages wondering how everything is linked together, there is blackmail, secrets from the past, family connections, mining companies not to mention pressure from the internal affairs and careers on the line, there is so much happening. It ended with a bang with many of the leads and trails discovered a very satisfactory ending, this is one that I would highly recommend.
My thanks to Allen & Unwin AU for my copy to read and review
Ivan and Nell are shocked at what they find in the mine owned by Jonas McGee the murdered miner and there are a lot of questions to be answered, was he dead before he was crucified and now the investigations starts, asking questions trying to find motive, there is a lot to uncover. They dig deep and there are many trails to follow, billionaire mining magnates, new rare earth mines a cult in the town and the leader politically linked, ratters to find, the trails are many.
Ivan uncovers a death from the past that his old partner, now being forced into retirement never found out what really happened to the young man back then, is that somehow linked to this murder? Then a drug bust in the town that puts Nell in a precarious situation, a detective from internal standards arrives investigating Ivan and then Nell as well, this adds to the tension created by the investigation.
This is a very good criminal thriller with many twists and turns, fabulously written it had me turning the pages wondering how everything is linked together, there is blackmail, secrets from the past, family connections, mining companies not to mention pressure from the internal affairs and careers on the line, there is so much happening. It ended with a bang with many of the leads and trails discovered a very satisfactory ending, this is one that I would highly recommend.
My thanks to Allen & Unwin AU for my copy to read and review
4 stars
Published September 28th 2021 by Allen & Unwin
