Chris Hammer set to captivate Central West audiences on seven-day tour
Award-winning crime fiction novelist Chris Hammer has Dubbo as a key focus when he tours five Central West towns beginning on Saturday, May 11, in Forbes.
Mr Hammer will visit Forbes, Narromine, Coonabarabran, Dubbo and Wellington, conducting author talks in each community.
The former senior writer for The Age and online political editor for the Sydney Morning Herald has left journalism behind for crime fiction.
Mr Hammer’s latest novel The Seven is set in southern NSW near the Murrumbidgee River. This book will be a key focus of his author talks.
Seven powerful families reside in the area, all connected to the Yuwonderie Irrigation Scheme.
An accountant from one the families (Athol Hasluck) is murdered and two homicide detectives from Dubbo (Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan) arrive to investigate.
They establish this crime may be linked to others and that the killer may still be out there.
Two other sub-plots form while the murder investigation is taking place.
One is from the 1990s and concerns Davis Heartwood, the heir to a large family fortune (one of the seven families) who is doing a history degree at the time and has to write a thesis.
The history of the irrigation scheme is his thesis topic and Davis finds “a few skeletons” in his research.
The other era covered features letters written by a young servant girl named Bessie at a time when the fictional irrigation scheme was first being proposed (between 1913 and 1915).
“At first it would appear they all have nothing in common except for the location,” Mr Hammer said. “But as the story unfolds, the reader starts seeing connections between the three different eras and how events in one (era) flow through to events in the others.”
Aside from “a good chat” about how he put together The Seven, and other books, people can just expect Mr Hammer to be himself. “A bit of insight in what it is like to be a writer and how I go about what I’m doing,” Mr Hammer said when asked about people can expect at his author talks. “Nothing too heavy, a few jokes, a few anecdotes.”
He recently went to Hay, Griffith and Wagga Wagga in the NSW Riverina on a regional tour and expects this one to be similar.
He said there is a special quality about touring regional areas.
Author talks in the bush have a more personal touch, according to Mr Hammer.
“I love going out to regional areas. There are a lot of readers in regional areas and they don’t get as many authors passing through,” he said. “In the bush people are just as big as readers. When I got the invite, I didn’t hesitate. Hopefully I’ll see a few old friends and make some new ones.”
Mr Hammer is the author of the international best-selling Martin Scarsden series Scrublands, Silver and Trust.
Scrublands won the UK Sunday Times Crime
Book of the Year (2019) and has been adapted for television.
When asked what made Scrublands adaptable to television, Mr Hammer felt it was the international appeal for crime fiction.
“There is a great appetite for crime fiction,” Mr Hammer said. “It’s intriguing to me that not only do Australians like these crime series, so do people internationally.”
Mr Hammer explained when he puts together a crime fiction novel, he is trying to bring a story together in a way “that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
“It’s not all about the plot,” he said. “There are other elements that are just as important. The characters, the settings, typically they are in regional Australia. The way the story is told, the language used… and the emotional response you may evoke in a reader.”
Mr Hammer described himself an immersive reader and said he aims to “invite the reader into this different world where you leave your daily troubles behind.”
And on changing from being a journalist to being an author? “Being a writer is so liberating… and it is more flexible,” he said. “There will be times I’ll cut myself off so I can write… and then others I’m out meeting people.”
The Macquarie Regional Library is looking forward to hosting Mr Hammer.
“Chris’ books all have atmospheric Australian settings, interesting characters and really intricate plots which readers love,” Macquarie Regional Library Manager Kathryn Mcalister said in a media release.
“Our team are really excited to bring such a popular author to the region… last year his novel The Tilt was one of the top five most borrowed fiction books in our library network.”
Mr Hammer will do some re- search on his trip and check out the scenery in and around Dubbo while he is in town.
Fictional detectives Lucic and Buchanan, who feature in Treasure and Dirt, The Tilt and The Seven, are based in Dubbo.
After Forbes, Mr Hammer will then appear in Narromine (May 13), Coonabarabran (May 14) and Wellington Library (May 16).
The two events at Dubbo Library on Wednesday, May 15, are at 10.30am and 6pm respectively with the Wellington event at 10.30am the next day at Wellington Library.
The Dubbo evening session will feature an in-conversation chat with Jen Cowley.
All events are around an hour long and free. However, bookings are essential for all events as spaces are limited.
For Narromine, Coonabarabran, Dubbo and Wellington, register at the Macquarie Regional Library website.