Grips like a vice and twists like a rollercoaster. Impossibly clever. Impossible to put down!

It was really hard for me to put this book away. I pulled an all-nighter to finish reading it. The numerous plots and suspense left me, chapter by chapter I read with bated breath!

I really love this series from author and journalist Chris Hammer. He writes the most sublime Outback Noir with fully realised characters that you can visualise and whose voices you hear so clearly. This one again brings in journalist Martin Scarsden towards the end of the book, so you know that this case is going to set Australia alight.

When the body of local accountant, Athol Hasluk, is found in an irrigation canal on the property of Country First MP Otto Titchfield, DS Ivan Lucic and DC Nell Buchanan of the New South Wales Rural Homicide team are sent to investigate.

Haslock lived and worked in the small Riverina town of Yuwonderie. Yuwonderie is a flourishing town, and has been ever since the founding seven families initiated their irrigation scheme for the area, becoming both powerful and wealthy in the process.

Hasluk was a respectable and well- liked member of the community with aspirations to electoral success. His death is surprising not least because he didn’t drown in the canal; his death was so much more brutal.

Cover The Bones is set across three distinct timelines that have a ninety year span. The reader is treated to diary entries, and letters all of which helps to inform the events which led to the establishment of ‘The Seven’ – the group of powerful families who control Yuwonderie.

As they investigate, Nell and Ivan find that Haslock was less than cautious about his own financial affairs. But is this what led to his death?

As we follow the narrative of researcher Davis Heartwood in 1993, we learn from his research how the founding families established the Yuwonderie Irrigation Scheme which became the foundation for their rise to power and success.

Bessie Walker’s diary and letters home are written in 1913. She’s of mixed heritage and has come to the area to work for Horace Titchfield and his family. Titchfield is working to convince his neighbours to work with him to explore the viability of establishing an irrigation scheme on the southern side of the Murrumbidgee River. Jack Marney one of Titchfield’s neighbours in this scheme, plans to marry Bessie but before he can do so he is off to Gallipoli, promising her as he goes that if he doesn’t come back he has made sure she will be well taken care of.

Ivan and Nell make an excellent team working together now in harmony, and I enjoyed the addition of Kevin Nackangara, the force’s forensic accountant who has a lot to contribute to this puzzling mystery. But Ivan’s focus is somewhat distracted as he receives some very disturbing news and as he dwells on it, he falls back into unhealthy patterns of behaviour, leaving Nell open to risk.

I love the epic sweep and historical reference points in these books this book and the way in which Chris Hammer uses the geography of the area to create a magnificent backdrop to his murder mysteries. Against the wide, sweeping countryside, he gets up close and personal with his characters so that you are aware of the span and scope of his complex storytelling while simultaneously you feel the sun on your back and the dust in your nostrils. The beautifully constructed plot has some personal lows for Ivan the re-appearance not only of the aforementioned Martin Scarsden, but also of Phelan, a poisonous officer from Professional Standards whose enmity to Lulic is palpable.

Verdict: Cover The Bones is an immersive, sweeping and vivid read that has everything you look for in a murder mystery. Great characters, personal difficulties, tension, history, double dealing and powerful persuaders seeking to quash any investigations. It’s a great read and one that you’ll enjoy getting your teeth into. Chris Hammer is one great storyteller.

The small town of Yuwonderie is a man-made Paradise, and a hugely desirable place to live. But of course every version of Paradise has its own version of the Serpent - and Yuwonderie is no exception.

Seven families have long held all the power in and access to this beautiful place, which is like an oasis in the Australian wilderness. But now, it looks like someone with a grudge is dealing out their own twisted form of justice to the "aristocracy" of the Outback.

So when a brutalised body is discovered in an irrigation canal, and it turns out to be a member of one of the core families, detectives Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic know that they have a challenge on their hands. But they have no idea just what a major can of worms has now been opened up...

This is a clever and atmospheric thriller that also does its wild and haunting surroundings justice. The detective duo are well drawn characters, and Nell in particular is an excellent MC. Those who enjoy twisty mysteries are likely to be a great fit for this book. It gets 3.5 stars.

4.5* Cover the Bones (sold in other countries as The Seven) is Chris Hammer’s best yet and I say that as someone who has read and loved all of his fiction.

A body is found in the irrigation canal which runs across a property belonging to an MP. The outback town is a lush oasis, having been founded in the 1910s by seven families who funded an irrigation scheme and have been reaping the benefits through the generations. But this brutal murder is not the first to beset the people of the town and potentially it won’t be the last.

In their 3rd outing, Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are sent to investigate. They find townsfolk who are enamoured by ‘the seven’ families and a murder where the motive is unclear.

The book is told over 3 timelines. The present day murder. The prior generation in the 1980s. And a hired help who works for one of the founding families at the time of the inception of the irrigation scheme.

Chris Hammer is pitch perfect with this book. Ivan and Nell are fantastic characters (this would work just as well as a stand alone) and the depth and twists in the plot are smart and unexpected. The timelines weave well together and it’s a really tricky book to put down. I absolutely loved it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

This is an excellent thriller from the author. Set in Australia and covering three timescales, it's about families, secrets and greed. The descriptions are beautiful, I imagined myself right in the landscape, and the characterisation is well developed, especially Ivan. The book is well written, with clever plotting but I didn't like the long descriptions regarding irrigation schemes and finance. They were just a bit too long winded. That's my only complaint which makes it 4, rather than 5*. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Chris Hammer just gets better and better. His novels start out with one mystery but end in a delicious web of intrigue well beyond the initial investigation. More complexity than your typical police procedural with the added benefit of being set in Australia.

With Cover the Bones, the strong partnership of Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan really shines as they investigate the death of a man from a thriving, well-water oasis in Australia. The Seven, a set of influential families who brought Yuwonderie to life with an irrigation scheme to keep the land green when drought dessicates most of the country, go back generations as do the secrets they keep. This novel is the perfect example of one mystery wrapped within another. I loved the historical elements of the story. Smart, strong and varied characters make this tale sing in traditional Aussie fashion. A brilliant all rounder sure to satisfy.

I am enthusiastic about Chris Hammer's books and forever pushing them on friends and family but recommend you start with Scrublands, if he is new to you, and follow the books on from there. It isn't essential to read them in order but it does help lay the ground work as characters have a habit of popping up. Loved the cameo in this book, by the way. Glad Martin is well as I am missing him.

A pleasing mix of crime and family saga with the tale told from three points in time. Plenty of layers to the story, similar to Robert Goddard. In Ivan and Nell we have two of the strongest characters currently around in crime writing.

Chris Hammer is one of my favourite authors. I love the working relationship and dynamics between Detectives Ivan and Nell. Set in an outback town, Hammer makes you feel like you are there. Set across three timescales, the story unfolds and ends in an explosive ending. Great story which kept my interest throughout, although I found all of the names and people difficult to keep track of. It was nice to have Martin Scarsden make an appearance. Very enjoyable.

A body is discovered in a canal by some kids water-skiing. Ivan and Nell are called in to investigate.
The reader also sees events from both 1914 and 1994, but the Police are unaware of the connections until things suddenly start to get very dangerous.
Really enjoyable and hard to see exactly who was the culprit. As with all of his books, plenty of action, atmospherics and mystery.

In Yuwonderie there is an actual line in the sand, on one side is the desolation of a drought ravaged landscape whose inhabitants livelihoods are weather dependent while on the other is a lush man-made oasis. This haven is afforded only to those who are part of the Yuwonderie Irrigation Scheme Company, the majority of whom are descendants of the town's founding fathers, known locally as The Seven. One of the scheme's canals has for decades been a prime location for water skiing and now, to the horror of a group of locals, a body dump.

DS Ivan Lucic and DC Nell Buchanan are called in when the body is discovered and are shocked by both the violence used against the victim and the uniqueness of their location. Run by The Seven the town looks architecturally stunning and is an environmental paradise, but there is something not quite right about this perfection that Lucic and Buchanan need to discover and fast. They know every family has skeletons rattling around, just as every town has secrets, now all they need to do is discover which ones led to both death and destruction.

This is the third in the Detective Ivan Lucic series and boy does it hit the spot! It has a complex storyline set in three time frames, with the murder investigation happening alongside a record of letters written at the inception of the irrigation scheme, and a third person perspective from the 1990s. Fast paced from the start this is a compelling read which I absolutely loved and didn't want to finish. There were only three books in Chris Hammer's first series, I hope this time, fingers crossed, there may be a least one more.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Headline, Wildfire, but the opinions expressed are my own. I can't recommend this highly enough, I enjoyed every word.

I’m fond of crime fiction stories set in Australian towns situated beyond the coastal fringe of major inhabitancy. These outback towns are largely self-sufficient, with supplies routinely being trucked in from the large coastal conurbations and law enforcement being carried out by a few, generally junior ranking, officers. Yuwonderie is such a place, five or six hours drive from the either Melbourne or Sydney. In this town water matters, there just isn’t enough annual rainfall to allow it grow and ultimately thrive – without radical intervention, that is.

But the intervention came, some generations ago, in the form of an irrigation system tapping into the Murrumbidgee River, which was planned and executed by a group of families known as The Seven. These families are still the major players in this town, which did grow and did thrive. Only now a body has been found on land owned by one of the families, and it’s clear that foul deeds have been at play. Law enforcement is now on its way, in the form of detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan.

This is the third book featuring this pair, operating in the lesser populated areas of New South Wales. We will learn of events leading up to the murder not only by following their investigation but also through a series of letters, written by an Aboriginal woman in the early 1900s, and flashbacks to the 1990s, when a student descendent of one of the families conducted some research into the history of the town’s development.

In some ways this story has echoes of the previous book in this series, Dead Man's Creek in the respect that both are set in similar sized outback towns and concern a body found in water. But the main point of common interest for me is the opportunity to increase my understanding of Australia and its people, particularly those living outside of the major cities. I enjoy learning of the relationship between the indigenous population and those descended from the later European arrivals; the way in which the country has been developed, particularly in those areas where the climate and lack of beneficial natural resources fight settlers at every turn; the culture of the people and the place and how it differs to what I see and experience daily, living in a rural English town.

This is a long story (over 450 pages) and, in truth, it’s probably too long. And although the tale itself rattled along pretty well, I found the resolution to be unappealingly labyrinthine. In fact, I had to read the wrap up section twice to fully get a grasp on it. But what I continue to enjoy about Hammer’s books is the characters he draws – I’m certainly invested in Ivan and Nell and look forward to catching up with them again – and the way he opens my eyes to things I’d no idea existed. Water trading? I’d never come across that before, but it exists, in all its complexities.

Cover the Bones is an excellent Outback thriller written by Chris Hammer.
In short, Detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are assigned to investigate the discovery of a body in a canal. The victim is Athol Hasluck, member of one of the seven dynasties who have controlled this area of land in the Outback. It’s an investigation that Det Lucic lives for, the ones that aren’t obvious!
I thoroughly enjoyed this story, it’s expertly written in three timelines which connects the past with the future and reveals the corruption of powerful families…spilling it’s ugly secrets, lies and consequences.
I raced through this enthralling mystery, enjoying the descriptive setting of the Outback and appreciating the value of water…there’s a lot of interesting information which surrounds the story.
This is the first book I’ve read by Chris but he’s now firmly on my go to author’s list.
Big thanks to Chris Hammer, Headline and NetGalley for this eARC which I chose to read in return for my honest review.

I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in return for a fair review.
To date I have avoided Chris Hammer's books, his name making me think they were action orientated. I am now delighted to have been proved very wrong in that judgement and am delighted to discover a new author and will add all of his previous book to my "to acquire" list, This is a real page turner, with three time streams of the story. The lead characters in the current storyline, Ivan and Nell, immediately gained my attention and the twists and turns of the plots and subplots compelled my attention. I learned more about life in the outback and particularly about the importance and mechanics of water in such areas. Wholeheartedly recommended

Cover the Bones by Chris Hammer is available now in digital format and will be published in hardback January 4th 2024 with Wildfire. Book three in the Detective Nell Buchanan series, Cover the Bones is described as a ‘masterful new Outback thriller’.

Seven dynastic and extremely powerful families run the outback town of Yuwonderie, with their successes and wealth rooted in its water supply and irrigation. Tradition among these families dictates that the eldest son inherits the land and all the influence it brings, with second sons and others, having to make their own way in life. Athol Hasluck is a second son of one such family and when his body is discovered after a brutal attack, detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are brought in on the case to head the homicide investigation. As they delve into the possible cause of this horrific attack, Lucic and Buchanan soon realise that all is not as it seems, with the rot slowly revealing itself.

Cover the Bones is set over three different timelines tracing the history of Yuwonderie back over one hundred years. In the early 1900s, ideas were afoot to create a town that could survive the intense drought of the hot Australian seasons and, from that point, the dominance of the seven families came to the fore. Chris Hammer brings us back to this time through the words of a young woman, Bessie, writing to her mother about her life and the struggles she encounters, especially during the years of the First World War. There is pure innocence and heartbreak in these letters but wrapped up in the sadness is a dark tale, one of cruelty and deception that left Bessie in quite a difficult situation.

In the early 1990s, the order of play among the seven families fluctuated as dynamics and loyalties were tested, leaving devastation and unease in its trail. Fractures began to appear in friendships and truths were buried deep. At times complex and political, this section of the book did require a little more focus as Chris Hammer goes into quite a level of detail, with a more commercial angle to the plot.

Now, in the present day, there is a murder to be solved and Lucic and Buchanan must dig deep in order to break through the perfect veneer of this not so perfect town. There are references scattered throughout about Lucic’s personal story, with enough detail provided for most readers who haven’t read the previous two books in the series to get a grasp of his past.

With three timelines there is a lot to chew on in this tale. The historical element of the plot and the murder investigation are absorbing but my attention did waver slightly as the economic and financial ramifications of the past started to unfold. Overall though, I really enjoyed Cover the Bones. I like Chris Hammer’s writing with its glimpses into the Australian landscapes and people. It all feels quite authentic.

Cover the Bones is a sophisticated tale of powerful families and the intricacies of their strategic choices to stay dominant, whatever the cost. Money, greed, family loyalty, revenge and jealousy all feature in this engaging mystery from a writer described by Michael Connelly as ‘a leader in Australian noir’.

Chris Hammer’s writing takes the reader straight into a prosperous Australian town, isolated and insular, but with all the dark secrets a town could hold. When a body is found floating in an irrigation canal, detectives Ivan Lucic and his partner Nell are tasked with finding the who and why of this murder. The story becomes more dark and complex as it goes on, with the supply of water to this parched landscape being the central theme of the story. The cast of characters is considerable here, but they are always clear, and Hammer has produced yet another cracking story, with all the colour, twists and turns a reader could want.

Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan return in another intricately plotted and immersive murder investigation. Unlike much Aussie crime, rather than being set in rundown, poverty-stricken parts of the Outback, the action here takes place in Yawonderie, picturesque, prosperous and thriving. The seven dynasties who rule the place have become rich through irrigation of the land and trading in water, schemes which go back decades to the time of World War One. When the body of Athol Hasluck, from one of the Seven families, is found in a canal, stabbed and electrocuted, the detectives begin to uncover evidence of betrayal, fraud and dark secrets stretching back over the years. Intelligently written, with interesting characters and a satisyingly complex mystery to unravel, Hammer does not disappoint. I enjoyed this book less than the first two in the series as it centres on politics and money, while they were more about people and relationships, especially Lucic and Buchanan, although we do find out more about Ivan’s past and his demons here. I hope Hammer will continue to explore their lives and histories in future books.

I'd say this is Chris Hammer's best one yet. The plot is detailed and wide-ranging and Hammer kept me equally interested in three timelines and cases of characters. Usually on multiple timeframes, one can feel a drag to read and a distraction from the main events, but not in this case. I appreciated how everything came together at the end. Pure class!

I might say this every time I finish one of Chris Hammer’s book but I think this one is the best one so far. It is a truly accomplished book. It is quite a complex story but the way the author writes makes it an addictive and all consuming read. The way he manages to write three different narratives that are all immersive in themselves and stand-alone is brilliant. Each narrative has a unique voice and you want to read their stories but at the same time they all weave together perfectly too to make one very complete story. This book felt very believable and at times I felt like I wanted to look up the true story as it just felt so well researched, even though I knew it was a work fiction. Not only does Chris Hammer write very compelling characters and great mysteries he also makes the landscape so much part of the story. The remote Australian countryside is ever present and casts a big shadow throughout. Now all that is left is to wait for the next one,

There is a lot to take in with this one, it felt like there were too many characters for me to keep track of and I kept forgetting who was related to who.

The writing is superb as always, but I think it needed to be a little less complex and a lot shorter.

I do love being back with Ivan and Nell and hope there will be more books featuring them both in the future!

This was such an engrossing read, I really enjoyed this one, it is so well plotted. I did find I had to concentrate quite a bit on the names / times lines as there are 7 main families and three timelines but it didn’t take away from the enjoyment. I also liked that we started to see a little bit more of Ivan’s background and his struggles.