Hammer nails it again with his latest crime thriller, THE VALLEY.
Taking the template of a rip roaring western and fashioning it around an historic homicide and a current killing, THE VALLEY is resplendent with the greed feeding lust for gold, street shootouts, kidnappings and grave robbing.
Swindlers, panhandlers, dodgy lawyers, crooked cops, heist meisters, paternity suits, bizarre bequests and bent politicians pepper this tale of good, bad and ugly, featuring Hammer regulars, detective Nell Buchanan and Detective Ivan Lucic.
THE VALLEY begins with what has become something of a trademark in Hammer’s novels – a tense past tense prologue with a sense of danger, dread and death. In this case it’s a double cross denouement from a daring bullion robbery that will resonate nearly forty years later with more double dealing and deceit.
For fifty pages Hammer hurtles along with an intriguing procedural and then lobs a grenade of a plot twist, the percussion of which vibrates through the rest of the narrative.
The strands of two slaughters, the current and the cold case, string together as the threads are drawn through the tapestry of heritage, land grab, media manipulation by corrupt politicians and conflicts of interest that jeopardise individual integrity.
The time shifts are handled adroitly, blending neatly into a sort of narrative synesthesia, creating a cognitive course through the past to the present. Bombshell revelations are carefully calibrated to shock wave the reader to point break.
Doffing his Stetson at the Wild West tropes that dot the narrative, Hammer’s creation of the small town lawyer, Willard Halliday, is a memorable one, a truly colourful character.
Less Atticus Finch, more Doc Holliday, the lawyer has a handlebar moustache, wears a silk waist coat and string tie, polished riding boots and a belt with ornate silver buckle, and smoked pencil thin cigars. A slippery solicitor with serpent tooth and tongue.
THE VALLEY by Chris Hammer is published by Allen & Unwin.
