Trust by Chris Hammer

Publisher's Synopsis

She breathes deeply, trying to quell the rising sense of panic. A detective came to her home, drugged her and kidnapped her. She tries to make sense of it, to imagine alternatives, but only one conclusion is possible: it's the past, come to claim her.

Martin Scarsden's new life seems perfect, right up until the moment it's shattered by a voicemail: a single scream, abruptly cut off, from his partner Mandalay Blonde.

Racing home, he finds an unconscious man sprawled on the floor and Mandy gone. Someone has abducted her. But who, and why?

So starts a twisting tale of intrigue and danger, as Martin probes the past of the woman he loves, a woman who has buried her former life so deep she has never mentioned it.

And for the first time, Mandy finds denial impossible, now the body of a mystery man has been discovered, a man whose name she doesn't know, a man she was engaged to marry when he died. It's time to face her demons once and for all; it's time she learned how to trust.

My Review of Trust by Chris Hammer

Trust is the third book featuring investigative journalist Martin Scarsden and picks up in the  Queensland town of Port Silver shortly after the events described in Silver have died down. With yet another true crime book under his belt, Martin is hoping life can return to some semblance of normal. It’s a hope that is doomed to fantasy. 

The seemingly idyllic life that Martin is living in Port Silver with his partner Mandalay Blonde and her son Liam is thrown into absolute turmoil when she is abducted from their family home. And just like that, the quiet Port Silver life is forgotten and they’re thrust back into a heart-stopping mystery that dredges up Mandy’s past.

Unlike the other two books in the series which are predominantly rural settings, Trust is set largely in Sydney and deals with the high pressure, high stakes world of investment banking and property development. At the heart of the story is the discovery of the body of Tarquin Malloy, a security advisor with Mollison Bank who, years before had disappeared after having stolen $10 million from the bank.

It transpires that Mandy once worked at Mollison Bank and had been in a relationship with Tarquin Malloy, a couple of facts that she had been trying to forget. The discovery of Malloy’s body has revealed that he was an undercover cop conducting a clandestine investigation into the bank. Mandy is drawn back into it through the abduction and Martin is drawn in while in pursuit of Mandy.

As a good investigative journalist is prone to do, he kicks over a few rocks, trips a flag or two and, suddenly, secrets that had been closely guarded for years are in danger of coming to the surface. There are powerful people with wide-reaching contacts who’d like those secrets kept quiet and will do just about anything to keep things that way. It’s a recipe for an investigation that has a real risk of blowing dangerously out of control.

Having read the first two Martin Scarsden books it was pleasing to finally get to know more about Mandy. She plays a far more prominent role here taking her from being simply Martin’s partner to a more fully defined person. There is significant development of her character thanks to an in-depth background into her life that led to the present. She also plays a far greater role in meaningful investigative work which means we get to see her in a more reactive way as she deals with moments of great stress and pressure. It’s long overdue but a very welcome aspect of the series as a whole.

I really enjoyed the way this story moved along. Sure, things started getting complex and a little challenging as we dug deeper into the world of big business and some pretty shady corporate cover-ups, but the explanations were sufficient to keep me transfixed. 

Trust is a far more violent story than the other two Martin Scarsden novels. It’s also a gritty, pulsating thriller that is filled with its share of offbeat characters and tough, uncompromising showdowns. My preference is for this type of unapologetically real style. It’s a dark and it’s  bare-knuckled and ultimately compelling reading.