Treasure & Dirt

Treasure and Dirt (also titled Opal Country) is the first book in the Ivan Lulic and Nell Buchanan series by award-winning Australian journalist and author, Chris Hammer. With Morris Montifore set to go before Professional Standards in Sydney, Detective Sergeant Ivan Lulic is flying out to the small opal-mining town of Finnegan's Gap with a Crime Scene Investigator and a Forensic Pathologist.

An anonymous call to Crimestoppers has alerted police to the suspected murder of Jonas McGee, who was found nailed to a makeshift cross below ground in his own claim. It's thought that ratters, hoping for a surreptitious share of McGee's recent lucky finds, came across the body.

Seconded from Bourke to help Lulic is Detective Constable Narelle Buchanan. Nell is familiar with the town, having previously spent three years there as a probie. Her history put her at odds with a certain local cop, but she's eager to work with Lulic.

Initial investigations yield little, and while the local police are co-operative, even helpful, obtaining mobile phone data and bank account details all takes time. Questioning of potential witnesses/perpetrators proves fruitless: it seems none of the other prospectors was anywhere near McGee's claim when he died. McGee's estranged daughter is overseas, Lulic's trusty Rule of Proximity isn't helping, and it's not entirely clear whether Jonas was murdered or not.

Complicating matters is a fancy limo full of Asians negotiating for a nearby rare earth mine, wealthy local businessmen wielding influence with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jonas's past association with a nearby religious cult, and a key witness absent from his job at the coalmine to the south of town.

Large deposits and withdrawals from McGee's account, a raid by the drug squad on a local shopkeeper, and visit from a Sydney Professional Standards cop, interested in Lulic's role in Montifore's recent actions, adds extra spice to a tale already full of intrigue. What Nell and Ivan gradually uncover are schemes and scams and cons, left, right and centre, some worth billions. And eventually, they begin to wonder if they've been set up to fail.

Hammer easily conveys the hot, dry and dusty mining town with its stark landscape, its mix of wealth and poverty, and its quirky locals. The map of Finnegan's Gap is both necessary and welcome. There are plenty of red herrings and distractions, and every time the reader thinks they know what direction things are going, Hammer throws in a twist or two. And then, just when things are winding down, there's an exciting climax that includes an Armoured Personnel Carrier, a sniper and an RPG, significantly increasing the body count and providing a neat resolution.

True to form, Hammer gives some of his characters ridiculous-sounding names (Trevor Topsoil, Humphrey Tuppence, Delaney Bullwinkel, Cyril Flange, Trudy Lampsheet). Ivan Lulic will be familiar to readers of his Martin Scarsden novels as a minor character, but both he and Nell prove to have unexpected depth: it will be interesting to see where Hammer takes them in their second novel, Tilt. Clever and topical, this is an excellent work of Australian crime fiction.