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Lädt ... Scrublands (2018)von Chris Hammer
   Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.   ) punkinmuffin | Apr 30, 2024 |  ) davidrgrigg | Mar 23, 2024 |  ) MerrylT | May 18, 2023 | So what I have done is compose a list of discussion points based around the complex and interlaced plot lines we see in the novel. Martin Scarsden's career - what has happened to him in the past? (in the trunk of a car for 3 days). As a result he thinks his career as a journalist may be at an end. He recognises that instead of reporting events without involvement, he has become part of them. In what ways is this true? Martin is sent to Riversend by his editor at Fairfax Press to write a piece about how the town has recovered from what happened there nearly a year ago. How/why does he get side-tracked? The unsolved mystery - why did Byron Swift shoot 5 people outside the church, and then force the constable Robbie Haus-Jones into shooting him? - Byron Swift's background - the involvement of ASIO - money being sent out of the country to Dubai attracts attention (they don't realise where it is going, think maybe it is going to Jehadists) What is the thread here? Harley Snouch - Mandy Blonde's story - did the rape happen? Why did Mandy's mother tell her to put her affairs in order by the time she was 30? The disappearance of the two female German backpackers a year before. The story took a backseat when the church massacre happened. Codger Harris, ex bank manager. Why he has become a recluse. Where is Harley Snouch getting the money to renovate Springfields? The wealth coming into the town. Accepted by people as money that the priest is contributing. They don't want to know how it is being generated. The bikies riding through the town. Who are they? What happens at Scrublands? Shooting. Drug factory. The role of fire - what is burnt? Martin's relationship with Mandy. Did you take any notice of the chapter titles? Are they significant? The role of the drought - the heat - what is the significance of coming of the rain? The profile of the town. How would you sum it up? The suicide of Herb Walker, the sergeant at Bellington. The cutthroat nature of the media. The media feeding frenzy. Why is Martin dismissed by Fairfax? The car crash of the two boys. The death of Allen Newkirk. Why is he a significant character? How satisfied were you with the final explanation? Did everything come together for you? Why did Byron Swift crack? Whose fault was it? Where there any factors/events in the novel that struck you that have not been covered in the pointers above? e.g. the connections between Byron Swift and Avery Foster (ex SAS) and the veteran living in Scrublands. Riversend was once more prosperous than it is now. What signs are there of this prosperity? What blows has it been dealt? (effects of location, drought, changes in technology) What does Chris Hammer do particularly well? From Ten Questions to Chris Hammer There was a lot going on in Scrublands, with several crimes and interwoven plot-lines. The drought-ravaged setting played a large part in Scrublands. Reading Group Questions From Together We Read discussion group Despite being set in a fictional town, Scrublands has a strong sense of place. What elements does Chris Hammer include to achieve this? What assumptions at the beginning of the novel did you think could not be true? Did any of the twists and turns surprise you? What did you think of the ending of the book? Were all your questions answered? My rating: 4.8 (  ) smik | May 17, 2023 | Scarsden arrives in a town baking in the endless summer heat and encounters a suspicious and reticent local population. He makes little headway until he gets involved in fighting a fire and starts to establish his bona fides. Events in the aftermath of the fire reveal another mysterious crime that casts a new light on the priest's atrocity and, for from having a gentle time, Martin finds himself in the middle of one of the biggest stories in the country. His actions in pursuit of this story land him in both professional and personal strife. Hammer gets a lot of things right in this novel. His descriptions of a small town in the Riverina summer and the surrounding countryside are spot-on. He also manages to pose some serious ethical questions through the dilemmas that Martin faces as a journalist when he finds himself to be part of the story rather than an independent observer. That said, there were a few things in this book that really turned me off. The names he gives some of his characters are just stupid; I mean, "Mandalay Blonde", really? The contemptuous language he uses to describe an obese character tells us a lot more about Hammer than about the character. Most of all though, I just felt that the plot and its resolution fell slightly on the silly side of sensational, and did not really warrant devoting almost 500 pages to its exposition. ( ) gjky | Apr 9, 2023 |
Scrublands is the epic novel about rural life in Australia that we need right now. In its concern with crime beyond the suburban fringe, it sits right up there with the late Peter Temple's Broken Shore, Garry Disher's Bitterwash Road and Jane Harper's The Dry, even as it extends their focus and reach. Nor is Hammer in a hurry. There's an expansiveness about Scrublands that gives the reader time to think, to reflect and to get to know both the place and the characters, who are far from one-dimensional despite their rather too obvious monikers. As Scarsden explores Riversend, you can follow his progress on the handy topographical map in the frontispiece. There's the main street, and there's the war memorial at the crossroads featuring the life-size statue of a soldier dressed in the uniform of the First World War, "boots, leggings, slouch hat". But the names of the locals listed on the white slabs include those who died in the Boer War, Korea and Vietnam. As Scarsden looks into the face of the bronzed digger, he ponders the ways in which a town like Riversend has already had to withstand so much more trauma than the punishing heat and punitive drought. Scrublands is a rural crime novel with remarkable breadth and depth that would also make a superb TV series. Gehört zur ReiheMartin Scarsden (1) Auszeichnungen
"In the vein of The Dry and Before the Fall, a town's dark secrets come to light in the aftermath of a young priest's unthinkable last act in this arresting and searing debut thriller. In Riversend, an isolated rural community afflicted by an endless drought, a young priest does the unthinkable, killing five parishioners before being taken down himself. A year later, accompanied by his own demons from war-time reporting, journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend. His assignment is simple: describe how the townspeople are coping as the anniversary of their tragedy approaches. But as Martin meets the locals and hears their version of events, he begins to realize that the accepted wisdom--that the priest was a pedophile whose imminent exposure was the catalyst for the shooting, a theory established through an award-winning investigation by Martin's own newspaper--may be wrong. Just as Martin believes he's making headway, a new development rocks the town. The bodies of two German backpackers--missing since the time of the church shootings--are discovered in a dam in the scrublands, deserted backwoods marked by forest fires. As the media flocks to the scene, Martin finds himself thrown into a whole new mystery. What was the real reason behind the priest's shooting spree? And how does it connect to the backpacker murders, if at all? Martin struggles to uncover the town's dark secrets, putting his job, his mental state, and his life at risk as more and more strange happenings escalate around him. For fans of James Lee Burke, Jane Harper, and Robert Crais, Scrublands is a compelling and original crime novel that marks Chris Hammer as a stunning new voice in the genre. A compulsively readable thriller of the highest order, Scrublands never loosens its grip, from its opening scene to the very last page"-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (3.75)
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