Newly minted homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her hometown, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder – a ‘file and forget’.
But this is no ordinary cold case, as the discovery of more bodies triggers a chain of escalating events in the present day. As Nell starts to join the pieces together, she begins to question how well she truly knows those closest to her. Could her own family be implicated in the crimes?
The nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more dangerous the present becomes for her, as she battles shadowy assailants and sinister forces. Can she survive this harrowing investigation and what price will she have to pay for the truth?
Gripping and atmospheric, The Tilt is a stunning, multi-layered novel by the acclaimed and award-winning author of international bestsellers Scrublands, Silver, Trust and Treasure & Dirt. Hammer spent thirty years as a political journalist and foreign correspondent for Dateline before turning to writing fiction. He is now considered a master of the rural noir, sitting atop this genre with a select handful of other Aussie crime stalwarts. When we talk about the rise in the Aussie crime thriller, Hammer is always part of that conversation.
With The Tilt we return to Nell Buchanan, who we were introduced to in Treasure & Dirt as a naive young investigator who wanted to prove her worth. Now she’s been promoted to homicide detective, with Ivan Lucic as Detective Sergeant, in a new rural homicide unit based in Dubbo. Nell is still one of the most likable crime characters around, making this story exciting when she’s sent to her hometown of Boonlea to investigate a murder and the clues lead in an explosive direction.
As always, the setting plays a major role in Hammer’s novel. The Tilt is set near the New South Wales-Victorian border, along the Murray River, and while the towns are fictional, the Barmah-Millewa Forest is a central location, which is the world’s largest River Red gum forest. There is a map at the front of the book giving readers a visual of the area, and the forest looms large throughout creating an atmospheric sense of place and foreboding.
Hammer’s prose is measured and intelligent. The novel is multi-layered and utterly gripping. You’ll rip through the almost 500 pages in no time at all. Gritty, smart and ever so satisfying, The Tilt is Chris Hammer’s best novel yet.
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