I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for a review copy of Cover the Bones, the third novel to feature DS Ivan Lucic and DC Nell Buchanan of New South Wales Police.

The body of Athol Hasluck is found in the canal in the agricultural town of Yuwonderie. He has been tortured and stabbed before being thrown into the canal. He is a member of the seven families that have run Yuwonderlie for over a century, so local politics and secrets play their part in the investigation, especially as Athol is not the first member of “the Seven” to meet a violent end.

I am a big fan of the author, but I didn’t feel that Cover the Bones held my attention the way his previous work has. To be clear, it is still an excellent novel, but not the gripping read I was expecting. There are a couple of reasons for this, firstly the novel revolves around corporate misdeeds and criminality, which I find uninteresting and secondly the novel is told in three timelines, 1913-5, 1993-4 and the present day, so the reader’s focus is constantly shifting between three different stories that only merge at the end of the novel. It makes the two older stories very slow burners, which takes attention away from Ivan and Nell’s wide ranging and constantly evolving investigation.

That’s the cons, which are outweighed by many pros. The 1913-5 story is absolutely heartbreaking and extremely well done as it follows Bessie through a couple of tumultuous years in the form of letters to her mother. She is able to express the highs and lows eloquently and that gets the reader involved in her story. The 1993-4 episode exposes some of the wrongdoing at the heart of the Seven and their various businesses. I didn’t get the same emotional pull from this plot line, maybe because it’s business-centric and about the supply of water among other things. The novel is clear that in Australia profiteering from water supply is big business, but I’m from Scotland where more sun and less water is a regular wish, so I cannot fully comprehend the desperation involved. I would have liked the author to spend more time on the present day investigation as that’s where my heart is - a meaty murder investigation. I understand, however, that with such a complicated setup and history in the town, the smartest way to lay it all out and keep the reader’s interest is to go with different timelines.

This is a powerful novel that prises open the Australian way on so many different levels, the rich, the poor, the good, the bad and the greedy. It is a tale of humanity that still manages to throw the reader at the end with some great twists and satisfy with a case well solved.

Cover the Bones is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

I'm slowly becoming such a fan of Australian novels and Hammer is pretty much the reason why. This is the third novel of his which I have read and they get better and better

Cover the Bones sees the welcome return of Chris Hammer's Outback Detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan.

This time the intrepid duo are sent to the town of Yuwonderie, a largely affluent town built on the wealth and prosperity that it's abundant water supply brings, a supply still owned by the 7 families whose descendants negotiated the water rights and built the irrigation system.
When one of the members of "the 7" is found in a river with stab wounds and evidence of electrocution. Lucic and Buchanan are once more dispatched to investigate a small town murder mystery.discovering a story that goes down through the generations and potentially puts them in danger.

This is an involving book spanning 3 timelines that Chris Hammer keeps moving deftly and in a way that doesn't cause the reader any confusion. What appears to be a model town proves to have dark secrets , a seedy underbelly and a hidden history. Regular readers will be pleased with the appearance of a few favourite characters ........ and a mystery solved........from previous books.

Chris Hammer gets better with every book, this is exceptional.

Hammer delivers a cracking book every single time.
This one runs over three timelines, and it's a bit of a drip feed to bring them.all together.
What starts as one dead body, stretches back into the history of the town.
Australian noir is one of my favourite genres, and Hammer is an auto buy author for me.
Ivan and Nell are believable characters, that im hoping will be working together until.they retire... and longer.

Perfectly paced, with plenty of secrets to uncover.