LISTEN: Chris Hammer on Silver

by |September 16, 2019
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Australian crime fiction is a genre that has grown like no other, and rural crime fiction in particular has seen some incredible authors make their debut over the past year. One such author is Chris Hammer, whose acclaimed debut crime novel Scrublands made serious waves across the world and whose follow-up novel Silver is bound to do the same.

Silver sees Martin Scarsden, the rugged journalist hero of Scrublands, heading back to his hometown of Port Silver with his partner Mandy in tow. But Port Silver holds a lot of traumatic memories for Scarsden, memories which come crashing to the surface when his childhood best friend is murdered and Mandy is named as the chief suspect. Once again, Martin finds himself at the centre of a media firestorm as he tries to uncover the deadly secrets at the heart of this small town.

Chris Hammer came to Booktopia to sign some copies of Silver and then to sit down for a chat with Ben Hunter and Shanulisa Prasad, in which they discussed everything from his phenomenal worldwide success (“Absolutely unexpected, of course!”) to the impact of journalism on his writing.

For Scrublands and now Silver, Chris was able to draw upon his 30 years of experience as a journalist, as well as his rural upbringing, in order to develop the character of Martin Scarsden.

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“I spent more than 30 years as a journalist, and that probably comes through somewhat in the books – Martin is a journalist after all, so I understand all that sort of methodology.” Chris says. “But I’ve lived in country towns to an extent. I lived in Bathurst when I went to uni, but I travelled a lot, did a lot of reporting in the countryside too, so I think that’s probably what’s playing out in those books.”

Silver goes deep into the psychological and emotional toll that violent crimes take on not only their victims, but on the people who work to solve and report on them, and so having a strong sense of character development was incredibly important to Chris.

“Once I’d finished Scrublands, one of the things that I liked about it was his emotional journey through the book, so that the Martin Scarsden at the end of Scrublands is a different man than at the start. And so I wanted to do something similar in a way with Silver,” he says.

While Silver definitely puts its protagonist through the emotional ringer, it may not be the last readers see of Martin.

“I think there will be another Martin Scarsden book after this … and after that, who knows?”

Silver is out on October 1 – grab a signed copy here* and listen to the full podcast below!



*while stocks last

Silverby Chris Hammer

Silver

by Chris Hammer

Martin Scarsden returns in the sequel to the bestselling Scrublands.

For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping. He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again. Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days has been brutally murdered, and Mandy is the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer...

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About the Contributor

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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