There’s only so many ways you can say a town is hot and dry without becoming boring, but Chris Hammers just about manages it. A priest shoots five men dead out of the front of his church; he is then shot dead by police. Journalist Martin Scarsden comes to town to explore the motivation behind the shootings and end ups facing his own personal identity crisis while attempting to find meaning in a complex set of lies.
Scrublands is a big, impressive book; maybe a little too big for my liking but every character is well developed and the links between them worth exploring. Compare Hammer’s writing and character development to Jane Harper’s in The Dry and you’ll see why I loathed The Dry with such passion.
