Q&A: Chris Hammer, Author of The Valley

Tell us a bit about your new novel The Valley.

It starts as a typical police procedural: a body is found in a remote valley, and Ivan and Nell are sent to investigate. But the case soon turns intensely personal for Nell: DNA testing reveals the victim is a close blood relative of hers, on her father’s side.
But Nelll is adopted; she’s never known the identity of her biological father. So even as she tries to identify the killer, she is also trying to discover what happened decades before, and how her mother came to be in The Valley.

Is the setting of The Valley inspired by a real place?

It’s kind of an amalgamation of the Araluen Valley, south of Braidwood, and nearby mining towns like Majors Creek and Captains Flat, with the majesty of the Blue Mountains thrown in for good measure.

We love that each of your novels features a map of the town – how does this process work – does the illustrator read your novel before they begin sketching or do you send them a rough outline?

I love the maps, and the artist Alex Potočnik does such a brilliant job.

To start, I send him a preliminary sketch, together with a draft of the manuscript to read. Then there is a lot of backwards and forwards, discussing everything from perspective, to the size and placement of different features. It can take quite a while to get it right; remember, these locations are typically fictional, so Alex can’t just reference google maps or an atlas to get it right.

Many of your books have been set in regional places. Why do you think regional towns work so well for crime novels?

I definitely think a regional location can add a lot of atmosphere to a story, and help build an imaginary world for the reader to enter. And it can be useful plot-wise: in a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business, and coincidences can be more believable.

Does the creative process get easier for you with each book?

No. I wish. Some bits get easier, but that’s more on the side of analysis and editing; the creative process is as fraught and joyful as ever.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

It’s not about you, it’s all about the work. So don’t get bogged down worrying if you’re any good or not; just concentrate on the manuscript and making it better and better.

Buy a copy of The Valley here.