Chris Hammer
Credit: Mike Bowers
Chris Hammer is a leading Australian crime fiction novelist, author of international bestsellers Scrublands, Silver and Trust. Scrublands was shortlisted for major writing awards in Australia, the UK and the United States. In the UK it was named the Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year 2019 and won the prestigious UK Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award. His latest, published as Treasure and Dirt in Australia and New Zealand and Opal Country internationally, is out soon.
We had great fun chatting with Chris about his writing career, learning how he moved from journalism into writing fiction via a couple of non-fiction books. We also talk about what inspired Scrublands and hear about why he thinks it has taken so long for Australian crime fiction to take off internationally. On top of that, he tells us about his process and talks about why he wanted to leave his previous protagonist, Martin Scarsden, alone for a while to write Opal Country.