Great Reads for Great Readers

 

The Valley, by Chris Hammer.

    
          Chris Hammer is a happily familiar face for all the tens of thousands of Crime novel fans in this part of the world, knowing as we do that each new book is always meticulously plotted and characterised, and that each story is a microcosm of contemporary Australian lives and times.  He has several returning characters to the differing themes in his books;  in this story we meet again with Nell, short for Narelle (what a good Aussie name that is!) Buchanan and Ivan Lucic, Detectives who didn’t work together very well at all a few titles ago;  now the rough edges have been worn away and they are a polished and effective team who always get their man.  Eventually.

            They have been sent to a central NSW valley where a local, a young and wealthy entrepreneur has been found dead, drowned in a beautiful lake not far from where he had established a luxury eco-resort for the wealthy and jaded to recharge their batteries.  It hasn’t taken long to confirm that blunt-force wounds to the head rendered him unconscious when he was put in the water:  drowning completed the job.  His young wife (his second) seems more business-like than mourning – she has a business to run, after all!  And the local businessmen of his acquaintance don’t appear to be mourning his passing.

            And there seems to be a secondary scandal and mystery pertaining to the abandoned goldmine halfway up the escarpment;  the woman who owned it threw herself off those cliffs when her husband’s body was found murdered in the depths of the mine.  But the more questions Nell and Ivan ask, the more mysteries they expose, including Nell’s parentage:  she was adopted as a baby and never knew her biological parents.  Now, that is about to change.  By birth, she is a local, too!  The clues to the victim’s seed wealth all seem to point to the abandoned and played-out mine, but countless searches for any gold have revealed nothing over the years, and the mystery of Nell’s parentage is almost more than she can cope with;  however, dogged determination as always, solves everything satisfyingly at the end  -  as it should. 

            And as always, Chris Hammer produces a highly satisfying page-turner, full of red herrings and pretzel turns and, particularly when describing The Valley, a lyrical and beautiful hymn to the wonderful Australian landscape and wildlife.  We can only pray that it stays that way.  FIVE STARS.