A Twisting Tale of Intrigue and Danger: Read Our Review of Trust by Chris Hammer

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. Sydney has never felt so rich and dark as Chris manages to take a familiar setting and twist it on its head once again as he did with the previous two novels in the series, Silver and Scrublands. The city is as layered and complex as the characters, Martin and Mandalay. It’s clear that a lot of time and thought has been put into them. They are meticulously crafted in a way that feels very real and visceral, and only deepens the immersion into this thrill ride of a story.

Trust isn’t a quick read, but it will feel like it with the action never seeming to stop. Martin and Mandalay never stop trying to unravel this mystery, and this really helps you fly through the novel. Every time the mystery starts to open up and become clear, it becomes harder and harder to guess what will happen, which only a writer like Hammer could pull off with such grace and subtlety.

With the beautiful crafting of the dark and gritty Sydney, to the superb character work, and a fast-paced mystery to keep you on your toes, Trust is everything we have come to expect from Chris and more. I can’t wait to dive into his backlog of books and read some more amazing stories. A perfect thriller for those looking for a fright this October!