The valley – written by Chris Hammer, read by Dorje Swallow.
Wow! Chris Hammer has done it again! The latest instalment of Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic’s series The Valley is brilliant!
As always Chris Hammer demands the reader’s attention. You have to carefully digest and remember every detail from the first word or you’ll miss a vital clue to unravel the mystery. The twists and turns are plenty and the characterisations are fantastic. Hammer’s description of the Valley – hidden from view somewhere off the main highway in rural NSW – feels familiar. The natural beauty is cool and lush but also eerily menacing because an unsolved murder has brought Nell and Ivan to the Valley. It’s not long before Nell and Ivan’s investigations discover long unrest between police, locals, environmentalists, and loggers. Police accounts tell the history of old money families, gossip about new money eco-entrepreneurs and how most locals who live in the Valley have been caught in between. Nell and Ivan discover everyone’s connected to the murder in some way, but they can’t be sure whose account, including local police, can be trusted. To learn the truth Nell and Ivan are forced to re-examine past stories, lies, and secrets for themselves. To catch their killer Nell and Ivan will have to solve a long-forgotten disappearance and two suspicious deaths from decades ago that leads to a tragic home truth for Nell.