The Tilt (signed)

The Tilt (aka Deadman's Creek) is the second book in the Ivan Lulic and Nell Buchanan series by award-winning Australian journalist and author, Chris Hammer. Detective Constable Narelle Buchanan sees her inclusion in the Rural Homicide team with DS Ivan Lulic as a promotion, although the remains they've been sent to investigate in Tulong on the Murray River turns out to be eighty years dead, so really not their remit. Ivan sees the team as more of a demotion, which is perhaps why he leaves Nell to tidy up the details and close the case.

The skeletal remains surfaced when the Regulator on the Murray River was blown up (probably environmentalists), giving them a clue about the era; missing persons lists, compiled by the local cop, Kevin Nackangara, and dental records confirm the identity of the shooting victim: an Arny Major, Gerard Stannard, stationed at the nearby POW camp during WW2.

Nell still has family in nearby Boonlea, so there's pressure to visit. Her uncle, Tycho Buchanan, and maternal ancestor of Nell's were also on the list of missing persons, so it's a mixed blessing to be able to confirm that it's neither of these. But Department of Defence records add some intrigue: another soldier, and the not-inconsiderable sum of four hundred pounds also went AWOL at the time. Accessing more information requires calls to the War Memorial and the National Archives.

Her uncle Gene writes an inflammatory article implicating a former (crooked) cop from nearby Hatheson in Stannard's murder, while Nell's mother makes an enigmatic observation that has her wondering at her own family's involvement. An altercation with a publican who takes offence sees Professional Standards questioning Nell use of her martial arts skills And then, another body turns up…

In 1973, fifteen-year-old Tessa Waters is thrilled to have attracted the eye of Tycho, the eldest of the musical Buchanan brothers, who has a cool car and a job as a reporter for the Western Explorer. He's writing stories about a new winery, about the Mafia in Griffith, about the forest dwellers who have withdrawn from society, and about sly groggers in the forest. They are heavily involved by the time he mysteriously goes missing.

Jimmy Waters has been given the responsibility of taking the cows into the forest to scavenge whatever feed they can He's only eleven-year-old, but it's 1942, the drought has left the pastures dry, the regulator is closed and his father's gone to war. It's by the river he meets Bucky, and they become instant friends. Bucky entices him into the money-making scheme of catching yabbies to sell to the chef at the Army Officers' camp, which is how, eventually, he encounters the awful Major Stannard, and a particularly brave Italian POW.

Hammer uses several narrators to tell the story, as well as a police statement, emails and archival reports, and he throws in a bit of misdirection and a few red herrings to keep the reader guessing right up to the final reveals. There's a very handy map at the front, and a family tree after the final page, which shouldn't be accessed by readers wishing to avoid spoilers. Excellent Australian rural crime fiction.