The Seven is another great Australian rural mystery-suspense in Chris Hammer's enthralling series featuring NSW homicide detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan. This series exists in the same fictional "universe" as Hammer's earlier Martin Scarsden series, with investigative journalist Scarsden making a useful cameo appearance in The Seven, as he did in serious predecessor The Tilt.

Like The Tilt, The Seven employs a cleverly intertwined multi-timeline structure, which I love! We follow the experiences of Bessie Walker, a well-educated part-Aboriginal girl, who's arrived to work as a servant on Castle View, the Titchfield family property south of the Murrumbidgee River in 1913. We also meet, in 1993, a cast of characters in their late teens and early 20s, who've grown up together in and around the prosperous (but fictional) town of Yuwonderie, the centre of an irrigation area south of the Murrumbidgee River, in the vicinity of real life Colleambally and Morundah in central-southern NSW
In the present day, Lucic and Buchanan travel to Yuwonderie after the body of local accountant Athol Hasluck is found by skylarking teenagers in a canal on the property of prominent citizen and local MP, Otto Titchfield.

The investigation brings Lucic and Buchanan into more than one dangerous situation, as it becomes clear that they're closing in on the truth. A couple of fortuitous contacts provide hidden clues as the plot races to its dramatic and satisfying conclusion.

As always, Chris Hammer's writing is wonderfully evocative of the rural Australian landscape. As I grew up in nearby Wagga, this was especially evident to me while reading The Seven, as it was an area with which I was closely familiar for many years. When Ivan takes his morning run up Castle Hill, providing a dramatic and far-reaching view across the surrounding plains, it brought to my mind many childhood visits to Galore Hill, with its history of bushranger outposts and long indigenous associations. There was a privately-founded irrigation scheme at Colleambally during the mid-20th century, and while it wasn't nearly as successful as that described in The Seven, must certainly have provided inspiration to the author. After all, in this hot and dry environment, water is life and its control bestows great power.

The characterisations of the central characters, Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan continue to evolve. They're both sympathetic and believable characters, whose different personalities provide an excellent foil for each other. I found the supporting characters, in all three timelines, particularly engaging in this book, also. Hammer explores many intriguing themes around social hierarchies, gender politics and the abuse of power which made this a very tantalising read.

I'd highly recommend The Seven to any reader who enjoys high-quality Australian Noir with strong plot and great characters. While having read the series predecessors, Treasure & Dirt and The Tilt provides substantial backstory around the central present-day characters, I believe this would also be a rewarding read as a standalone or entry point to Chris Hammer growing body of work.

My thanks to the author, Chris Hammer, publisher Allen & Unwin, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

The Seven (also titled Cover The Bones) is the third book in the Ivan Lulic and Nell Buchanan series by award-winning Australian journalist and author, Chris Hammer. When the body of a local accountant is found in an irrigation canal on the property of Country First MP Otto Titchfield, DS Ivan Lulic and DC Nell Buchanan are sent to investigate.

Athol Hasluk’s was a one-man accounting practice in the small Riverina town of Yuwonderie. He was respected and well-liked, although he didn’t have the large accounts of The Seven: the powerful and influential founding families of the Yuwonderie Irrigation Scheme, even if he was a junior member of one of those families. He didn’t drown in the canal, though; he might have been electrocuted; he was stabbed, possibly drugged, and definitely tortured.

His widow is adamant that he wasn’t having an affair, although lately he had been worried about something. Otto Titchfield says he may have had ambitions to join state politics. But his recently employed assistant has a bombshell or two to drop about his financial status. Turns out Athol was investing in water trading, a dodgy-sounding water extraction scheme, and a dry block of land.

In late 1993, Davis Heartwood, heir to a position as one of The Seven, decides instead that he will do an honours year in his History studies, and believes the founding of the Yuwonderie Irrigation Scheme will make a suitable topic for his thesis. Given free access to their archives, he becomes fascinated with how and why the nine families that undertook the original feasibility study became seven. He’s aware that the family heads, the town’s ruling clique, are trying to steer him away from that aspect, but he has no idea just how explosive are the facts he will uncover, nor the danger that represents.

In 1913, Bessie Walker, daughter of a white man and a part-indigenous woman, arrives at Castle View to work for the Titchfields, just as Horace Titchfield is trying to convince his neighbours to band together to explore the viability of an irrigation scheme on the southern side of the Murrumbidgee River, just like the NSW Government is funding on the north.

Jack Marney is one of those neighbours, and Bessie has caught his eye. Their plan to marry is delayed by the Great War, but he assures her before he heads to Gallipoli, that he has made financial provision for her, should he not return.

It’s pleasing to see how well Ivan and Nell work together after two years as the Rural Homicide team, and Kevin Nackangara’s appearance to work his forensic accounting magic is welcome. Ivan gets some disturbing news from overseas that sends him off the rails, back to a habit he thought he’d kicked.

Hammer’s cleverly constructed plot includes arson, suicide and attempted murder; a familiar conman reappearing; an unexpected departure via private plane; Martin Scarsden poking his pen in; again, the threat of Professional Standards in the form of Feral Phelan; and some high-power lawyers getting involved.

Three narratives, over three timelines that spread over ninety years, and include letters from a daughter to her mother, and some diary entries: just how they all tie in keeps even the most astute reader guessing up to the final reveals. Again, there’s a very handy map at the front created by Aleksander Potočnik, excellent cover art by Luke Causby, and Hammer easily captures setting and eras. Superlative Australian rural crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Allen & Unwin.