Silver by Chris Hammer

Publisher's Synopsis

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. And finds the past waiting for him.

He's making little progress when a terrible new crime starts to reveal the truth. The media descend on Port Silver, attracted by a story that has it all: sex, drugs, celebrity and religion. Once again, Martin finds himself in the front line of reporting.

Yet the demands of deadlines and his desire to clear Mandy are not enough: the past is ever present.

My Review of Silver by Chris Hammer

Martin Scarsden, first introduced in the hectic maelstrom of Scrublands, set in the remote town of Riversend in Victoria, is back in the sequel, Silver. Things have calmed down, he’s finished writing the book recounting the sordid events from the town and he’s ready to follow his partner, Mandy, to his childhood coastal home in Port Silver.

Upon hitting town he immediately comes across the body of a man in Mandy’s townhouse apartment. It’s a traumatic return to a town that is the source of a lot of memories, and a lot of them aren’t good. The man has been stabbed and, after the police have been called, Mandy quickly becomes the prime suspect in his murder. 

Making it even more personal is the revelation that the murdered man is none other than Jasper Speight, one of Martin’s childhood friends and this prompts the first of what would be many emotional recollections of the past.

In trying to clear his own and Mandy’s names in the involvement of Jasper’s death, Martin embarks on an investigation on what might have led to the murder. What he uncovers includes possible development disputes, a sex for visas scam, a wellness guru who may not be who he claims to be and a drug culture that’s running rife through the backpackers retreat. It’s the usual mix of money, drugs, power, corruption and greed that leads to a shocking night of murder that will bring the small town to national prominence.

Through Silver we gain a greater insight into Martin Scarsden’s past, far more than we did when he made his first appearance in Scrublands. The tragedies in his early life and disappointments experienced in Port Silver explain the somewhat rocky relationship he has with Mandy and the basic mistakes he makes that threatens to derail their new life together.

As with Scrublands, the evocative surrounding landscape of Silver plays a key role in setting the mood of the story. The coastal town is both idyllic and dangerously forbidding in equal measure. Natural beauty from features like the coastal waters and dense rainforest surrounding the town also means the likelihood of finding yourself alone, isolated and cut off from help should you run into trouble. Both sides of the coin prove important as Martin rediscovers his investigative journalist feet.

Although the book is over 550 pages in length, there’s plenty going on in a story that grabbed my attention very effectively. That’s my way of saying the pages fly by very quickly. The original murder leads to a multitude of mysteries and the process of picking through each character's lies and deception helps to nail down what is actually a tight, well-paced plot.

I think I enjoyed this second outing from Martin Scarsden more than his first appearance. At times it became frantic as one discovery crowded in on the next, but it was the deeper personal reflections and self-awareness that made him a more sensitive and relatable character. Add to that a wide-reaching, intricate mystery and this becomes an Australian crime story that ticks most boxes.