Chris Hammer (2024 [2023]) Cover the Bones.

Cover the Bones was brought out as The Seven in Chris Hammer’s native Australia. The Seven refers to the founding fathers and elite of Yuwonderie. By founding fathers I don’t mean black folk. I mean the elite that committed genocide or paid a pittance for land belonging to the natives. I learned a new word. Squattocracy. When the seven founding fathers had been there long enough, the land they stole was legalised. Much like wealth or water.

Global warming is uncovering the bones of what we already know. Without water land is worthless desert. If India cuts Pakistan’s water supply off upstream, expect nuclear war. Without water there is no food. And those that own the land own the people on the land.

I’ve not mentioned the story yet. Three separate timelines. Two apparent unsolved murders from the 1990s and something fishy about the story of the Seven and how they acquired the water rights for their land  after World War One, which meant in times of drought they could still produce food but they could also ration tenant farmer’s use of water. They could bankrupt them and buy their unprofitable land and make it profitable by adding that magic ingredient: water. It was win-win for the Seven established families in Yuwonderie.

The prologue begins with the discovery of a body. Johnny Titchfield is driving the truck along the canal and his mate Egg is water-skiing when he hits the body of Athol Hasluck. Haluck’s are one of the Seven families who control the water and the wealth, but the Seven used to be Nine and Athol is on the outside looking in.  Otto Titchfield, the father of the driver of the truck, is the resident MP and has set up his own political party. We know the type, a self-entitled Trumpet whose only concern is himself.

Someone has stabbed Athol Hasluck through the heart. His luck has run out. He’s also apparently been tortured. Detective Sergeant Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan have been sent to the outback to deal with the case. They’re sweet for each other, but nothing below the stiff upper lip. This is the fourth book in the series. I haven’t read any of the others bit I did see an adaptation of Opal Country which was brilliant. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b009k7kc/opal-dream).

Everything works out much as expected, in that the rich go back to their money.

The pace of the novel doesn’t flag and the denouement ties things up nicely but with too much magical thinking to make it plausible.   

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