Aussie Lovers of Crime/Mystery/Thriller/Suspense discussion

Final thoughts ( and reviews if you like) on Scrublands by Chris Hammer

I had this in a May Challenge before I knew it would be our June group read so I finished it yesterday. I enjoyed it although not as much as a lot of people did - it gets lots of five star reviews!
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I loved this book!! I could not put it down. While I did enjoy The Dry, I think this author exceeded it, he nailed the characters, the climate and the community. Standing ovation from me for this story, I think that there may be more than an element of truth in there.

Loved it! I enjoyed this book so much that I gave it 5*, something I do sparingly. I agree with Kylie...a standing ovation.


The characters had depth; the story had enough teasers and twists to keep me on my toes; and it felt real in the description of the town and climate.

Just finished this one, and enjoyed it. Giving it ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .

BUT, I had a bit of an issue with how helpful the various police & ASIO guys were to Martin. Always giving him lots of confidential information, even though they had just met him. This part of the story just did not ring true for me.

On the other hand, I loved the characters of Codger and Bert the tummy patting policeman. I thought they were both well written and they came alive for me.

So 4 tummy pats from me

Bea wrote: "Loved it! I enjoyed this book so much that I gave it 5*, something I do sparingly. I agree with Kylie...a standing ovation.
"

I rarely give 5 stars too! This really captured the characters well I think. ☺

Kerri_M wrote: "On the other hand, I loved the characters of Codger and Bert the tummy patting policeman. I thought they were both well written and they came alive for me.

So 4 tummy pats from me."

Although I was initially put off Codger by how he was introduced into the story, he grew on me too. Love the tummy pat rating!!

4 stars from me.

I also had a bit of an issue with how often people were like, 'look, I'll tell you, but you can't print anything or say you got the info from me.' I mean there was a lot of corruption in this book!

Overall though I enjoyed how convoluted it was. Kept me guessing, that's for sure.

Here's the link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4 stars from me. Enjoyed it, quite complex, not a perfect book but lots to like. I'd read more from the author. I'm grateful it was chosen as a monthly read, otherwise I would have bought it and probably added it to my TBR and forgotten it. I have a tendency to do that a lot!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://col2910.blogspot.com/2019/07/...

Don't we all Col!!

Ha Col and Brenda, i have books I bought last decade still to read

Oh yes Joss - I have plenty of those!!

Don't we all!