John Quinn

This is a tour de force – to create this imaginary landscape and then populate it with dozens of extreme characters in a fiercely plotted novel built on shifting sands. Wow. The introspection and self-doubt of the principle character, Martin Scarsden, a damaged journalist who realises his existence is self-harming, but, until the very end, can find no salvation that will last. His addiction to the job is too great to break out of. Constantly author Chris Hammer uses the trick of having Martin studying his own hands, an analogy for his uselessness – his hands are clean and pristine and produce nothing or worth, whilst a labourer or carpenter’s hands are grimy and calloused and produce things people use. Did the happy ending with Mandy seem right? Maybe, but I was pleased… Was the book brilliantly written? No, but the plot was so brilliantly planned, where almost no one escaped without a stain or character failing, where almost everyone was guilty to a degree, even the best people, including the young, likeable policeman. This is set against an arid, drought-plagued background where the temperature drains the life out of the city and eventually its inhabitants. If the drought doesn’t get you, the fires that follow will consumes all in its path without mercy. This dramatic setting is as much a part of the book as its characters and both exert deep influences upon each other. Even the town’’s name of Reverend…