Giveaway and Review: Trust by Chris Hammer

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *

Trust by Chris Hammer is the third book in the Martin Scarsden series and I'm proud to be part of the online blog tour for the release. I'll be posting a sample chapter on 31 October, but today I'm reviewing Trust and launching a giveaway for AUS & NZ entrants. Details below.

Review

We catch up with Martin Scarsden some time after the events of Silver and life is great for him and his girlfriend Mandy and her son Liam.

Events kick off quickly with Mandy's unexpected kidnapping and the action takes the characters to Sydney. Martin is focussed on finding Mandy whilst also being drawn into the apparent murder of his friend and journalism mentor.

What transpires from there is a plot chock full of fraud, corruption, power and blackmail involving a secret society of Sydney's elite: comprising lawyers, politicians and highly successful businesspeople. Martin and Mandy find themselves in the thick of it as they try to get to the truth of several whodunnits.

I was pleased to see evidence of Martin's character growth from Silver and Scrublands and a relaxation of his 'get the story at any cost' attitude from earlier in the series.

"Trust, Martin, the most valuable commodity any journalist can possess." Page 265

The setting in Sydney was instantly recognisable with a handful of memorable side characters and I could easily visualise this on the big screen as a journalistic / police procedural.

This crime thriller feels very up to date with several references to the bushfires, coronavirus, quarantine and Australia's economic recovery which was refreshing.

I thoroughly enjoyed Trust and crime fans will love this homegrown Aussie crime mystery.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Blurb

Published 13 October 2020
Allen & Unwin
RRP $32.99 AUD
She breathes deeply, trying to quell the rising sense of panic. A detective came to her home, drugged her and kidnapped her. She tries to make sense of it, to imagine alternatives, but only one conclusion is possible: it's the past, come to claim her.

Martin Scarsden's new life seems perfect, right up until the moment it's shattered by a voicemail: a single scream, abruptly cut off, from his partner Mandalay Blonde.

Racing home, he finds an unconscious man sprawled on the floor and Mandy gone. Someone has abducted her. But who, and why?

So starts a twisting tale of intrigue and danger, as Martin probes the past of the woman he loves, a woman who has buried her former life so deep she has never mentioned it.

And for the first time, Mandy finds denial impossible, now the body of a mystery man has been discovered, a man whose name she doesn't know, a man she was engaged to marry when he died. It's time to face her demons once and for all; it's time she learned how to trust.

Set in a Sydney riven with corruption and nepotism, privilege and power, Trust is the third riveting novel from award-winning and internationally acclaimed writer Chris Hammer.

You can seize this book at Booktopia.