So glad I started reading this series, just gets better and better. Full of twists, turns and intrigue, really good read.

Trust is the third book in the Martin Scarsden series by award-winning Australian author Chris Hammer. Five years ago, before Mandalay Blonde had met Martin Scarsden, she was engaged to a lawyer, Tarquin Molloy. He’d got her a job as a clerk at Mollisons Investment Bank, a job she lost when he disappeared overseas with a lot of the bank’s money. She’s avoided thinking about the whole awful thing since. Martin is unaware. Then a voicemail scream sends him rushing back to their Port Silver house, to find Mandy abducted and an unconscious police detective lying on their loungeroom floor. With that, he and Mandy are both thrown into the aftermath of past events. Homicide cop Morris Montifore arrives with questions, and some answers: apparently the embezzler’s remains have recently been found in the foundations of a five-year-old Parramatta apartment building. He also reveals that Molloy was an undercover cop. By the time he and Mandy have been reunited in Sydney, Martin learns that his closest friend, a journalist with an explosive story in the works, has been killed. Their plan to return to the safety of Port Silver is delayed: Martin feels duty-bound to find out why his good friend and mentor was murdered; and, out of a misplaced sense of guilt, Mandy wants to know what really happened to Tarquin. From there, it’s a roller-coaster ride: Martin’s Sydney apartment is trashed and burgled; he and Mandy find themselves dealing with infected phones, and navigating, thanks to a very cluey computer geek, the deep web and the cloud; they encounter petty crooks, crooked cops and a Chicago mobster; there’s an exclusive dinner club that indulges in more than meals, a gun battle in Sydney street, and, within mere pages, three crooks express a desire for Martin to clear their names. The narratives alternate between Martin and Mandy, and describe a tangled web that involves lies, secrets, a seemingly universal lack of trust, murder, blackmail, corruption, and nepotism. ASIO gets involved and by the end of the novel, there’s a very blood-thirsty scene and, ultimately, quite a high body count of innocents, the less-than-innocent and the definitely guilty. Mandy proves she has been singularly bad at judging who to trust; maybe she’s finally got it right with Martin? The setting Hammer has chosen for this third installment, with its plentiful mentions of Sydney locations, will certainly appeal to those who know the city. Once again, an excellent Aussie crime thriller. This unbiased review from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen&Unwin.

Trust is the third novel by Chris Hammer to feature the character Martin Scarsden and Mandalay (Mandy) Blonde. Martin is a journalist and former war correspondent for The Herald newspaper in Sydney. After a turbulent few weeks arriving in Port Silver, Martin, Mandy and son Liam, have now settled in the town and are enjoying life in their newly renovated home. Life is good and they appear to have put their troublesome pasts behind them, until the day when Martin receives a some strange phone calls; one from his old boss at the Herald and also a voicemail from a screaming Mandy. It turns out that Mandy’s past is more complicated than ever expected. Her past and present collide when the body of her ex-fiancé is discovered, and an investigation is opened once again into financial regulation and the theft of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Martin is looking into the murder of his old boss and trying to convince Mandy to tell him the truth. As the couple struggle to stay ahead of their enemies and to discover the truth, they are also fighting for their future. There are several storylines running in parallel and Hammer ties each of these together, but it does become confusing in the middle of the novel, trying to understand all of the various strands and how the individual characters connect. He does ensure that there is a rapid pace of movement and that the story does not let up. The reader does not need to have read the previous novels in the series (Scrublands, Silver) and Trust works well as a stand alone thriller. However, I enjoyed following each story and picking up on the subtle hints that indicate the overall arc of the storyline from Scrublands, through to Trust.

I didn’t realize this was #3 in a series and to be honest I don’t think I suffered much from not reading the others. Though, on the back of this I will be getting the others. Martin Scarsden is the main character and in this installment he has to face terror in his own home after receiving a call from his girlfriend Mandy screaming, destroying their happy life. This is clearly a great series and it benefits greatly from the freshness of the Australian location and the likability of the main character. Recommended, I’m looking forward to more.

Chris Hammer is a great writer and propels you through the story at speed. For the first half of the book, I found it a real page turner. However, as the plot begins to reveal itself, I found myself turning the pages less because I couldn't wait to find out how events resolved themselves, but more to get to the end and move on to something else. Most of the reviews for this book are excellent - and it definitely isn't a bad book. It's well written. But the minute it stopped being about individuals acting mysteriously and took the extremely well worn and slightly boring route of "a secret society with members at the highest level of society" I just stopped being interested. Secret societies are never interesting. An exclusive dining club full of politicians and businessmen? Who cares. Hammer did a sterling job of trying to persuade me I should be finding this as enthralling and jaw-dropping as Martin and that slightly annoying girlfriend of his (do girlfriends of dishevelled, emotionally slightly damaged middle aged men ALWAYS have to be beautiful? Could they not, just occasionally, have a brilliant brain and personality? And be fairly ordinary-looking?) but the reality is most people wouldn't bother reading an article like this in the paper. And if you disagree, ask yourself this. How fascinated were you by the Panama Papers? If the answer is "I can't quite remember what they are", then that's how you'd react to Martin's story of powerful people having secret get togethers to further each other's agendas (agendum. Whatevs.) A crucial character, given how much of the plot revolved around encrypted computer files and passwords, is completely unbelievable. Again, ask yourself - when you go into one of those down at heel computer repair "we will unlock your phone even though we know it's stolen" shops on the high street, do you ever get served by a brilliant genius computer geek? Who will do whatever you ask him? Who is just the best person in the entire city at hacking into files and downloading key footage on some state of the art equipment he keeps under the counter? No. It's someone who doesn't know one end of a scart lead from another and who is actually more knowledgeable about the vape liquid he will undoubtedly also be selling. Plus, a trio of women who (in ways not specified) do a literally incredible amount of work digging into the complicated well-concealed links between three (yawn) major companies are abandoned en route to the finale, as Hammer focuses more on a domino effect body count rise. White collar crime, corporate wrong doing and money laundering - it just isn't that interesting. Also, too much detail about coffee.