The tilt by Chris Hammer

Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan, featured in in Treasure and dirt, return in an engrossing mystery set near the Murray River. Nell returns to her hometown of Tulong, tasked with a cold case involving a body discovered when a water regulator was sabotaged. Then more bodies are found, and Nell begins to suspect that her family may be involved in the crimes.

Hammer deftly juggles many threads in The tilt, not least the geological features of the area and the beauty of the forest that lines the water and creeks. The reader is drawn into the narrative, which is told from different viewpoints, as the author poses difficult questions. Who is the woman who sabotaged the water regulator? Why was a man running for his life in the forest? Who is Jimmy Waters who relates his life as a young boy looking after cattle in the forest, while his father is at war? And what happened to Tess the young girl who was in love with Tycho Buchanan who disappeared under mysterious circumstances?

As the bodies stack up, Nell finds herself left in charge to solve the cases, as Ivan Lucic has been recalled and leaves her with Kevin Mackangara, the local police officer. She faces threats from the local pub owner and Neo-Nazis in the district while she uncovers much of the secrets and history of her family.

This was a stand-out read for me. Hammer manages to pull all the disparate layers of the story in a stunning conclusion and the setting of the forest and environment theme led me to further investigation of the area around Deniliquin and Echuca. Readers who enjoyed novels by Jane Harper, Garry Disher and S.R. White are sure to want to pick this up.

Themes: Mystery, Australian rural noir.

Pat Pledger