Treasure & Dirt (Ivan Lucic & Nell Buchanan, #1) in Aussie Readers

Nov 09, 2023 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-crime-thriller, australian-author, chcc-e-book-or-audio, audio-while-reading, fiction

5★
“Ivan likes to feel the world around him, to listen to it, to let it make suggestions. But all it’s telling him right now is that the day is unbearably hot. It’s as if the sun has picked him out, like a malevolent schoolboy with a magnifying glass. It comes from above and it comes from below, bouncing back up at him from the barren earth. When he puts a hand to his hair, it’s hot to the touch.”

The heat is one of my earliest memories of the author’s debut, Scrublands, and I have to say he hasn’ ...more

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Oct 20, 2021 Helen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: review-copy-from-publisher

This is my first Chris Hammer story and it won’t be my last, I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller, the death of an opal miner in Finnigans Gap has Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic sent to the small outback town to find the killer, here he meets young and newly appointed detective Nell Buchannan and they uncover a multitude of evidence that could point in many directions.

Ivan and Nell are shocked at what they find in the mine owned by Jonas McGee the murdered miner and there are a lot of questi ...more

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Oct 11, 2021 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-are, aussie-author, provided-by-publisher

Though there are loose links to his bestselling Martin Scarsdale series (Scrublands, Silver, Trust)Treasure & Dirt is a standalone crime procedural from Australian author Chris Hammer.

“Maybe this is it. The sky is too big, the land is too big. Too many places for secrets.”

When the body of Jonas McGee is found crucified at the bottom of his opal mine in Finnegan’s Gap, Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to the remote town in north western New South Wales to investigate. Paired with Dete Though there are loose links to his bestselling Martin Scarsdale series (Scrublands, Silver, Trust)Treasure & Dirt is a standalone crime procedural from Australian author Chris Hammer.

“Maybe this is it. The sky is too big, the land is too big. Too many places for secrets.”

When the body of Jonas McGee is found crucified at the bottom of his opal mine in Finnegan’s Gap, Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to the remote town in north western New South Wales to investigate. Paired with Detective Constable Narelle Buchanan, who served the town in uniform, it seems prudent to first consider the rule of proximity placing a handful of suspects in the frame, but it’s not long before the suspect pool widens as their investigation exposes old grudges, new rivalries, and buried secrets.

“The body is stinking, leaking, a horrible parody of Christ.”

Taking place over a period of about a week, Hammer develops an intricate but coherent plot in Treasure & Dirt. Lucic’s murder investigation starts with McGee’s neighbouring claim owner and his son with whom McGee shares a tragic past, the dead miner’s former offsider, and an unidentified team of ‘ratters’, men who steal opals from unattended mines, as suspects, but rapidly expands to assess if a desperate daughter, members of a local religious cult, or a pair of warring billionaires, may have played a part in the man’s demise. The story twists and turns as Lucic and Nell try to reconcile the past with the present to solve the murder, and make sense of the additional crimes they uncover.

“This isn’t an opportunity, he realises, this is a test.”

Lucic is a methodical investigator, inclined to follow every possible lead to its end. He presents as an introvert, self contained and thoughtful, but also determined and dependable. With his partner, Detective Inspector Morris Montifore, under investigation by Professional Standards, and his own vulnerabilities due to a gambling habit, Lucic feels the weight of the case, and its implications for his own career.

Similarly Nell, an inexperienced but ambitious investigator, is determined to prove her worth, a goal that may be made difficult by her history in Finnegan’s Gap. I liked Nell a lot, as a police officer she is smart with good instincts, though her personal life would suggest otherwise.

“It’s not your average town. Too many men, not enough women. Too much grog, too many crims, too much opal lust. Too bloody hot.”

Hammer deftly captures the starkness of the outback landscape, scarred and barren, seared by the relentless heat, beset by flies. Finnegan’s Gap is a hardscrabble town, slowly dying as opal finds become rarer, its population increasingly made up of an antisocial element. We are introduced to a handful of rough country old-timers and some eccentric characters, however I noticed a lack of racial diversity amongst the cast.

“Time we went to town. Time we started to set things right.”

Skilfully evoking a sense of place, offering realistic characters, and an intriguing storyline, Treasure & Dirt is a brilliant, engrossing read. ...more

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Oct 11, 2021 Kim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cultural-australia, australian, fiction, 2021-aus-release, australian-author, australian-fiction, canberra-author, literary-thriller, bookclub-lib-too-busy

A 5 star thriller. Holds just about everything that you could want from a crime thriller.
It's a compelling twisty mystery. There's a little foreshadowing at the beginning but not enough to give it all away and while it's a slow reveal there's enough happening in the plot to drive the story along.
There's a few nods to characters that appeared in his previous trilogy, balanced enough for the Chris Hammer fan to enjoy, but not so much that detracts from this as a standalone novel.
I really apprec ...more

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Jan 07, 2022 Cathy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to Finnigans Gap to investigate a miner’s death, which seems rather suspicious. He is assisted in the case by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan.

I found the book really interesting as it gives information on opal mining which is not something that I am particularly familiar with. The book opens with information about the practice of ‘ratting’ which is basically stealing from other people’s mines.

Hammer has created a fictional town called Finnigan ...more

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Jun 30, 2023 Averil rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2023

This is Hammer's third novel. I read the fourth before this by accident so I've had the character Nell Buchanan's story out of order, but it didn't matter too much.
For this book, Hammer moves to the NSW outback, somewhere near Lightning Ridge and the Queensland border. As always, the landscape is an important feature of the book; I could feel the heat from the page.
And as always, Hammer focuses his sights on a small town with a long history of problems: corruption, complicated family relations ...more

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Jan 06, 2024 Kerry rated it really liked it

This is the first of Hammer's new trilogy following the Martin Scarsden series. I was a bit dubious because I found Ivan Lucic a fairly unpleasant character in his earlier books but it works in this new combination. This was another good story with interesting characters and it really captures the feelings of outback Australia and opal mining. Hammer is really good at his evocation of place. He probably doesn't get the credit he deserves because of the places; country town Australian is barren a ...more

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Aug 22, 2022 Rina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ok, not going to lie, the start of this book was very slow, I drifted multiple times (I was listening to the audiobook). Then we arrived at the halfway mark, and BAM! I was hooked till the end.

In Finnigans Gap, an opal miner was found crucified and left to rot. Homicide Detective Ivan Lucic was sent from Sydney to investigate, with assistance from a young investigator, Nell Buchanan.

This book started just like any other Aussie rural crime books. The weather was punishing, the main characters we ...more

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Dec 15, 2024 Tien rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, australian-author, crime, australia

This is Hammer's fourth book and while it looks to be the start of a new series, it is basically a spin-off of the earlier Martin Scarsden series. It takes place months after that series and while that character is not in this particular book, he was mentioned and I think he will make an appearance later on.

I must admit, however, that Ivan Lucic did not make any impression on me whatsoever if he was actually in the earlier trilogy because I don't remember him at all! He appears to be quite easi ...more

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Aug 12, 2022 Jyv rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, australian-author, australia

I didn't find this as much as a page-turner as the author's other books. It was a bit slow and more of a police procedural, hence the length of time it took me to read it. The action towards the end of the book partly made up for it, but I can see why a person I gave it to for a gift never finished it. I missed Martin Scarsden. Having said that, I hope there is more of Ivan Lucic and Nell in any future novels. ...more

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Nov 21, 2022 Karen rated it really liked it

A great read, really captured the essence of an outback Australian town. You could feel the heat and the flies with Hammer’s description. In a desolate outback town close to the NSW and QLD borders, Finnigan’s Gap, a miner, Jonas McGee, is found crucified and left to rot in his Opal Mine. Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, and is assisted by a young inexperienced detective, Narelle Buchanan. As they investigate they come across secrets from the past and the present. The ...more

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