scrublands book review guardian

Crime Fiction Lover

Scrublands by Chris Hammer

In recent years, Australia has been the setting for some of crime fiction’s best-received novels. Think of The Dry by Jane Harper, Helen FitzGerald’s The Cry and Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic and you’ll get my drift. Time to add Scrublands to the list. Out since July for Kindle, this debut crime novel has now arrived in the US and UK as a hardback.

We’re in Riversend, in the rural heart of Western New South Wales. It’s a quiet little town, nothing special to look at. Somewhere to drive right on through without a second glance. Until one fateful day when the local priest opens fire outside his church, killing five men before being killed himself.

It’s almost a year since that happened, and journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend in the heat of the summer and during a severe drought to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. Sounds like standard fare for the seasoned reporter, but the more he hears from the locals, the less likely the official version of events sounds.

As Martin begins to dig deeper, he is in danger of uncovering secrets perhaps best left undisturbed. Then, just as he is gaining the trust of the people he meets, the bodies of two missing German backpackers are discovered in the scrublands surrounding the town. As the media pack descends in force, Martin unwittingly finds himself in the spotlight and making headlines.

Here’s the author saying a little bit about his book…

Scrublands will grab you from the off. It opens with the dramatic scenes at the church 12 month ago. What that scant prologue says – and, more importantly, what it doesn’t say – sets the tone for a book that keeps on giving.

Small towns are a mainstay of the crime fiction genre, and in Riversend we have a prime example. It’s run down, insular, claustrophobic and full of secrets – and the oppressive heat serves as a cloying backdrop to everything that occurs, so much so that the humidity seems to rise from the pages!

Martin Scarsden is central to all of Chris Hammer’s plot machinations but he is surrounded by a cast of boldly rendered characters, some eccentric, others downright scary but all with an authenticity that lifts them from the imagination and into the real world. They have great names too – meet bookseller and stellar coffee maker Mandalay Blonde, Codger Harris, Harley Snouch and Robbie Haus-Jones, the constable who shot and killed the young priest Bryon Swift, a man he thought of as a friend. All of them have a vital part to play as this tale unfolds.

The sense of place is palpable as Martin, sensing the story of a lifetime, settles into life in Riversend. There’s a touch of Groundhog Day as he takes a daily meander along the main street, passing the lonely war memorial and longing for coffee – and more – from Mandy Blonde. On the surface, Riversend is a peaceful backwater, but the more he uncovers, the more deadly the place becomes. The waterway that gives the place its name may be dry as a bone but Riversend is awash with undercurrents.

Scrubland is a fine piece of work, a book that offers a clear window on the world contained within its pages. I may have been reading it in the depths of a British winter, but its depiction of drought-hit Australia is so realistic that you may well be tempted to open a window or two (tip: don’t). Its depiction of the news-hungry press horde is spot on – as to be expected from an author who was previously a journalist himself.

If I had to quibble, I’d say the sheer volume of badness hidden in one small town seems a little far-fetched, but Scrublands wins on so many other levels. Grab a copy right away.

Take a look at our guide to the best of Australian noir , and if that whets your appetite, check out five great Aussie crime shows too.

Wildfire Print/Kindle/iBook £8.49

CFL Rating: 5 Stars

Big fan of The Dry and definitely interested in reading this debut from Chris Hammer.

This was one of the best books I read last year, highly recommend this book.

Going to pick up a copy asap

An excellent read so far. Thanks for the review, DeathBecomesHer, and thanks to kr for the positive comment.

One of my absolute top reads of last year. Extraordinary debut. While a similar setting to THE DRY, it’s a very different book, and I hope readers will give both a go.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

WELCOME TO CRIME FICTION LOVER

Related posts

The other murder by kevin g chapman, savage ridge by morgan greene, hear her scream by dylan h jones, recent comments, the finnish crime show arctic circle returns to walter presents, beck is back on bbc four with season 10, a guide to philip kerr’s bernie gunther series.

• Member Login
• Library Patron Login

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Search: Title Author Article Search String:

Scrublands : Book summary and reviews of Scrublands by Chris Hammer

Summary | Reviews | More Information | More Books

by Chris Hammer

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' rating:

Published Jan 2019 384 pages Genre: Thrillers Publication Information

Rate this book

About this book

Book summary.

In the vein of The Dry and Before the Fall , a town's dark secrets come to light in the aftermath of a young priest's unthinkable last act in this arresting and searing debut thriller.

In Riversend, an isolated rural community afflicted by an endless drought, a young priest does the unthinkable, killing five parishioners before being taken down himself. A year later, accompanied by his own demons from war-time reporting, journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend. His assignment is simple: describe how the townspeople are coping as the anniversary of their tragedy approaches. But as Martin meets the locals and hears their version of events, he begins to realize that the accepted wisdom - that the priest was a pedophile whose imminent exposure was the catalyst for the shooting, a theory established through an award-winning investigation by Martin's own newspaper - may be wrong. Just as Martin believes he's making headway, a new development rocks the town. The bodies of two German backpackers - missing since the time of the church shootings - are discovered in a dam in the scrublands, deserted backwoods marked by forest fires. As the media flocks to the scene, Martin finds himself thrown into a whole new mystery. What was the real reason behind the priest's shooting spree? And how does it connect to the backpacker murders, if at all? Martin struggles to uncover the town's dark secrets, putting his job, his mental state, and his life at risk as more and more strange happenings escalate around him. For fans of James Lee Burke, Jane Harper, and Robert Crais, Scrublands is a compelling and original crime novel that marks Chris Hammer as a stunning new voice in the genre. A compulsively readable thriller of the highest order, Scrublands never loosens its grip, from its opening scene to the very last page.

• "Beyond the Book" articles
• Free books to read and review (US only)
• Find books by time period, setting & theme
• Read-alike suggestions by book and author
• Book club discussions
• and much more!
• Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
• More about membership!

Media Reviews

Reader reviews.

"Starred Review. Stellar ... Richly descriptive writing coupled with deeply developed characters, relentless pacing, and a bombshell-laden plot make this whodunit virtually impossible to put down." - Publishers Weekly "A novel's opening moments are there to rivet readers' attention; this one begins with a dazzler... we're hooked." - Booklist "A compulsively page-turning thriller where the parched interior looms as large as the characters." - The Guardian " Scrublands is the epic novel about rural life ... that we need right now. In its concern with crime beyond the suburban fringe, it sits right up there with the late Peter Temple's Broken Shore , Garry Disher's Bitterwash Road and Jane Harper's The Dry , even as it extends their focus and reach." - Sydney Morning Herald "A heatwave of a novel, scorching and powerful. This extraordinary debut, perfect for readers of the magnificent Jane Harper, seared my eyes and singed my heart. Don't miss it." - A.J. Finn "Compelling...highly recommended." - Dervla McTiernan " Scrublands kidnapped me for 48 hours. I was hopelessly lost in the scorching Australian landscape, disoriented but completely immersed in the town and people of Riversend, as the heat crackled off the pages. I was devastated when it was time to go back to the real world. This book is a force of nature. A must-read for all crime fiction fans." - Sarah Bailey "An evocative and compelling page-turner, and a deft unravelling of small town secrets and the legacy of trauma, amid the suffocating heat of a drought-ravaged Australian scrub; I was hooked!" - Paul Howarth "Fresh and hypnotic, complex and layered, Scrublands ' gorgeous prose swept me up and carried me toward a conclusion that was both surprising and inevitable. I loved every word. Highly recommended." - Karen Dionne "As evocative and haunted as the American Southwest, Chris Hammer's Australian-set Scrublands is desolate, dangerous, and combustible. A complex novel powered by a cast of characters with motives and loyalties as ever-shifting as the dry riverbed beneath them, Hammer's story catches fire from the first page." - J. Todd Scott

Click here and be the first to review this book!

More Information

Christopher Hammer lives in Australia and has been a journalist for over twenty-five years. He has been an international correspondent, the chief political correspondent for The Bulletin, and a senior political journalist for The Age.

More Author Information

More Recommendations

Readers also browsed . . ..

• Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter
• The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark
• The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
• The Recruit by Alan Drew
• The Favor by Nora Murphy
• Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
• The Dance of the Dolls by Lucy Ashe
• Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
• How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
• Winter Work by Dan Fesperman

more thrillers...

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more

BookBrowse Book Club

Members Recommend

The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim

A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.

The Divorcees by Rowan Beaird

A "delicious" debut novel set at a 1950s Reno divorce ranch about the complex friendships between women who dare to imagine a different future.

Bad Animals by Sarah Braunstein

A sexy, propulsive novel that confronts the limits of empathy and the perils of appropriation through the eyes of a disgraced small-town librarian.

Who Said...

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Solve this clue:

and be entered to win..

Your guide to exceptional           books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.

Scrublands: not a whodunit but a ‘howcatchem’, a new suspenseful Aussie inversion of the genre

Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies, RMIT University

Disclosure statement

Stephen Gaunson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

RMIT University provides funding as a strategic partner of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

In 2020, Stan announced its endeavour to produce 30 original series filmed in Australia over the next five years.

A particular focus of the network is crime productions. Scrublands is just the latest, joining Black Snow (2023) and The Tourist (2023), in addition to remaking the popular Australian feature films Wolf Creek (2016) and Romper Stomper (2018).

Scrublands is also on familiar ground, joining several other adaptations of small town Australian crime novels like Peter Temple’s Broken Shore (written in 2005 and adapted in 2013) and Jane Harper’s The Dry (written in 2016 and adapted in 2020).

In his original novel, Chris Hammer masterfully presents an epic tale of a dying town. He meticulously details its struggles where the op-shop opens only twice a week, the hotel shuts down and the Black Dog Motel is the sole accommodation, with a strict “no animals allowed” policy.

With a backdrop rooted in the author’s non-fiction work on the Murray-Darling Basin – The River (2010), The Coast (2012) – Hammer weaves a crime novel that peels back the layers of fictitious Riversend, a New South Wales town grappling with economic decline, drought and the trauma of a devastating massacre just 12 months earlier.

As with the novel, this horrific and inexplicable traumatic act is where Greg Mclean’s gripping series begins.

Read more: Black Snow, a new pacy murder mystery, addresses the complicated legacy of slavery in Australia

Secrets and suspicion

In the town’s country church, Father Byron Swift (Jay Ryan), donned in white and purple robes, unexpectedly emerges with a rifle in hand. He commits a shocking act by opening fire on parishioners, resulting in the deaths of five men.

The clergyman is subsequently shot in self-defence by the local police officer, Robbie Haus-Jones (Adam Zwar), setting the stage for the unfolding saga of Scrublands.

It is a town full of secrets and suspicion of outsiders. The series follows burnt-out journalist Martin Scarsden (Luke Arnold) arriving 12 months later with a seemingly simple mission: to craft a human interest narrative on the aftermath of the mass shooting. His Sydney-based editor (Nicholas Bell) urges him to investigate how Riversend is faring one year after the horrific act.

The suspenseful narrative unfolds gradually across each episode, exposing the town’s hidden truths and pulling Scarsden deeper into the web of lies and secrets that have come to define this drought-stricken town.

All of the performances are strong, but Bella Heathcote who plays the grieving Mandy Bond is the standout.

As the audience is literally shown whodunit in this opening scene – replayed from different perspectives across the series – it is not a whodunit as much as a “ howcatchem ”.

A howcatchem is a crime narrative where the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The case then follows as the detective begins a hunt to restore the moral world by bringing justice to the community.

Scrublands offers a variation to this howcatchem sub-genre. The perpetrator is not at large but dead. The why of his violence, however, remains unsatisfactorily unanswered – and Scarsden intends to find out.

An immersive story

Further variations to the expected crime narrative continue with the victims being grown men rather than young women. Was the priest killing at random? Were his victims a calculated selection?

As Scarsden navigates the intricacies of Riversend, director McLean offers an expansive portrayal of the town. This gives viewers time to immerse themselves in the environment and multifaceted characters.

The story unfolds with a deliberate steady pace, allowing McLean to continue his interest in rural landscape stories (Wolf Creek, Rogue) where he has more recently branched beyond just Australia through international co-productions including Jungle (2017), set in the Amazon rainforest, and The Darkness (2016) about a family that visits the Grand Canyon.

The show is most successful through its links to rural crime noir with the emphasis on pulling apart the vulnerability and deception of this small town. All of these somewhat innocent characters are complicit in the criminality that was allowed to corrupt the town.

Scrublands is produced by Easy Tiger, the company behind adapting the Peter Temple Jack Irish novels for the ABC. Similarly, this is a detective story about a non-law-enforcement protagonist who has to rely on his own instincts rather than police intel.

Besides, the police here are just as suspicious as the crims being pursued.

The series builds at a nice tempo before the truth is finally revealed. Secrets are exposed, but nobody is less traumatised by the conclusion – including journalist Scarsden, whose own haunted past is equally exposed.

Hammer’s second novel, featuring the same protagonist, was the more impressive Silver (2019). There is another ready-made source work if Scrublands is renewed for a second series.

Scrublands is on Stan from today.

Read more: Roald Dahl, time-bending crime, and queer pirate comedy: the best of streaming this November

• Australian television
• Crime drama

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

Initiative Tech Lead, Digital Products COE

Director, Defence and Security

Opportunities with the new CIEHF

School of Social Sciences – Public Policy and International Relations opportunities

Book Review: Scrublands by Chris Hammer

By kristin centorcelli.

Chris Hammer

January 8, 2019

In the vein of  The Dry  and  Before the Fall , a town’s dark secrets come to light in the aftermath of a young priest’s unthinkable last act in this arresting and searing debut thriller.

You’re going to want to put journalist Chris Hammer’s debut thriller (he’s also the author of Rivers , a nonfiction work about the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin) on your must-buy list after reading this one. I say that right out of the gate because this (at times literal) scorcher of a novel knocked my socks off. It already had an advantage with me: its setting. I’m fascinated with Australia, and this immediately recalled another of my favorites, Jane Harper’s fantastic The Last Man . Hammer sets his tale in the dying Riversend, a small-town beset by hardship and surrounded by the unforgiving Scrublands, which provide sustenance (and off-the-books moneymaking opportunities) for only the hardiest of souls.

Journalist Martin Scarsden is in Riversend to profile the drought ridden town a year after a beloved priest, Byron Swift, opened fire outside his church, killing five people. He was shot dead by a local cop soon after.

Martin tries lifting his sunglasses, but the light is dazzling, too bright, and he lowers them again. He reaches back into the car and cuts the engine. There is nothing to hear; the heat has sucked the life from the world: no cicadas, no cockatoos, not even crows, just the bridge creaking and complaining as it expands and contracts in thrall to the sun. There is no wind. The day is so very hot, it tugs at him, seeking his moisture; he can feel the heat rising through the thin leather souls of his city shoes.

He finds an oasis in all that heat, a bookstore actually called the Oasis. Its cooler inside, and meeting the proprietor, Mandalay “Mandy” Blonde, is a revelation for Martin. Mandy is ethereally beautiful and vibrant, and Martin can’t imagine someone like this living in such a desiccated town. He soon finds out that the bookstore is all she has left of her deceased mother, Katherine, and it’s not a bad place to raise her infant son, Liam. She also offers her opinion for Martin’s story. Mandy is adamant that the rumors about the killer priest being a pedophile are not true.

“Martin, I’m telling you, he looked into my soul. I glimpsed his. He was a good man. He knew I was in pain and helped me.” “But how can you reconcile that with what he did? He committed mass murder.” “I know. I know. I can’t reconcile it. I know he did it; I don’t deny it. And it’s been messing me up ever since. The one truly decent human being I ever met besides my mother turns out to be this horror show. But here’s the thing: I can believe he shot those people. I know he did it. It even rings true, feels right in some perverse way, even if I don’t know why he did it. But I can’t believe he abused children. As a kid I got bullied and bashed, as a teenager I got slandered and groped, and as an adult I’ve been ostracized and criticized and marginalized. I’ve had plenty of abusive boyfriends—almost the only kind of boyfriends I ever did have; narcissistic arseholes capable only of thinking of themselves. Liam’s father is one of them. I know that mentality; he was the opposite. He cared.”

The motive of the shootings has never come out, but one thing is for sure–Mandy isn’t the only one that comes to the defense of Byron Swift. A local shop owner and even the constable that shot him, Robbie Haus-Jones, insist that he was a good man and that they have no idea what precipitated the massacre. It’s a conundrum for Martin, but he’s determined to get a good story. After all, he’s fresh off of a horrible experience while reporting in Gaza, and he’s keen to prove to his editor that he’s still got his mojo.

Carve out some time for this stellar debut, because you won’t want to put it down.

Poor Martin. Riversend is about to put him to the test, physically and mentally. The reason behind the shootings is certainly compelling, but the heart of this story is how horrific crime can inexorably change the people close to it, and in this case, an entire town. Hammer is a master of atmosphere, and there are a few scenes that will have you breathless, such as when Martin is conscripted into helping fight a raging fire out in the Scrublands. If you like eccentric characters, this is the book for you–from an erudite bum that holds court in an abandoned hotel to an affable elderly Scrubland resident who prefers to beat the heat by hanging out (literally) in his birthday suit, with nary a hint of embarrassment when guests come calling.

When the revelations (and there are quite a few) start, they cascade like a long line of dominos, catching just about every major player in their wake. In lesser hands, a story this chock full might have been less successful, but not to worry, Hammer is an author very much in command of his craft. Hammer’s journalism background brings welcome authenticity to the narrative, and if you’re fascinated with the life and work of these intrepid people, like I am, you’ll get even more out of an already fantastic story. While there is plenty of darkness in Riversend, there are also plenty of people that are determined to live their lives as best as they can while finding happiness where they can, but Martin’s investigation, and discoverie,s touches a lot of lives, and they’ll never quite be the same in the aftermath. Hammer expertly explores man’s capacity for evil as well as our capacity for love and forgiveness, all wrapped into a crackling thriller.

Scrublands is a bit of a slow burn at first, but it doesn’t take long to get rolling, and once it does, watch out. There’s something for just about everyone. Carve out some time for this stellar debut, because you won’t want to put it down.

Learn More Or Order A Copy

Book Review: The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney

Book review: tender beasts by liselle sambury, our most anticipated reads: april 2024, book review: lilith by eric rickstad, kristin centorcelli.

Fender’s upcoming US headline shows will be cancelled, as well as gigs with Florence and the Machine and the Life is Beautiful Festival.

Comments are closed.

• Biggest New Books
• Non-Fiction
• All Categories
• First Readers Club Daily Giveaway
• How It Works

Embed our reviews widget for this book

Get the Book Marks Bulletin

Email address:

• Categories Fiction Fantasy Graphic Novels Historical Horror Literary Literature in Translation Mystery, Crime, & Thriller Poetry Romance Speculative Story Collections Non-Fiction Art Biography Criticism Culture Essays Film & TV Graphic Nonfiction Health History Investigative Journalism Memoir Music Nature Politics Religion Science Social Sciences Sports Technology Travel True Crime

April 1, 2024

• Jhumpa Lahiri shares the syllabus for her recent course
• Thoughts on Trump’s new gig as a Bible salesman
• The life and work of Raymond Williams

• Sign up and get a free ebook!
• Don't miss our $0.99 ebook deals!

• Unabridged Audio Download

Trade Paperback

LIST PRICE $18.00

Buy from Other Retailers

• Amazon logo
• Bookshop logo

Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Christopher Hammer lives in Australia and was a journalist for over thirty years. As a foreign correspondent, he reported from more than thirty countries on six continents, as well as covering Australian national politics for television, newspapers, and magazines. Following the breakout success of his debut novel, Scrublands , he now writes fiction full time.

Product Details

• Publisher: Washington Square Press (January 14, 2020)
• Length: 384 pages
• ISBN13: 9781501196751

Browse Related Books

• Fiction > Thrillers > Crime
• Fiction > Thrillers > Suspense

Related Articles

• August eBook Deals: 15 Book Gems Waiting to Be Discovered - Off the Shelf
• 8 Quality Novels by Journalists with Storytelling Prowess - Off the Shelf

Raves and Reviews

“A heatwave of a novel, scorching and powerful. This extraordinary debut, perfect for readers of the magnificent Jane Harper, seared my eyes and singed my heart. Don't miss it.”

– A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

“Stellar. . . .Richly descriptive writing coupled with deeply developed characters, relentless pacing, and a bombshell-laden plot make this whodunit virtually impossible to put down.”

– Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Chris Hammer's powerful debut Scrublands establishes his place among the handful of thriller writers who understand the importance of setting as character, deftly weaving the story of a landscape burned dry and a town whose residents are barely hanging on with a complicated mystery that could only happen in this place in exactly the way Hammer tells it. Fresh and hypnotic, complex and layered, Scrublands' gorgeous prose swept me up and carried me toward a conclusion that was both surprising and inevitable. I loved every word. Highly recommended."

– Karen Dionne, international bestselling author of THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER

“Compelling…highly recommended.”

– Dervla McTiernan, author of THE RUIN

“ Scrublands kidnapped me for 48 hours. I was hopelessly lost in the scorching Australian landscape, disoriented but completely immersed in the town and people of Riversend, as the heat crackled off the pages. I was devastated when it was time to go back to the real world. This book is a force of nature. A must-read for all crime fiction fans.”

– Sarah Bailey, author of THE DARK LAKE and INTO THE NIGHT

“An evocative and compelling page-turner, and a deft unravelling of small town secrets and the legacy of trauma, amid the suffocating heat of a drought-ravaged Australian scrub; I was hooked!”

– Paul Howarth, author of ONLY KILLERS AND THIEVES

“As evocative and haunted as the American Southwest, Chris Hammer’s Australian-set Scrublands is desolate, dangerous, and combustible. A complex novel powered by a cast of characters with motives and loyalties as ever-shifting as the dry riverbed beneath them, Hammer’s story catches fire from the first page.”

– J. Todd Scott, author of THE FAR EMPTY and HIGH WHITE SUN

“A compulsively page-turning thriller where the parched interior looms as large as the characters.”

– The Guardian

“ Scrublands is the epic novel about rural life …that we need right now. In its concern with crime beyond the suburban fringe, it sits right up there with the late Peter Temple's Broken Shore , Garry Disher's Bitterwash Road and Jane Harper's The Dry , even as it extends their focus and reach.”

– Sydney Morning Herald

"A novel's opening moments are there to rivet readers' attention; this one begins with a dazzler. . . we're hooked."

“[A] gritty debut....sensitively rendered.”

– New York Times Book Review

"Shimmers with heat from the sun and from the passions that drive a tortured tale of blood and loss."

– Val McDermid

"Debut thriller of the month (and maybe of 2019)....Beautifully written."

– The Washington Post

"An indisputable page-turner."

– Associated Press

Resources and Downloads

High resolution images.

• Book Cover Image (jpg): Scrublands Trade Paperback 9781501196751

Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today!

Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.

You may also like: Thriller and Mystery Staff Picks

More to Explore

Limited Time eBook Deals

Check out this month's discounted reads.

Our Summer Reading Recommendations

Red-hot romances, poolside fiction, and blockbuster picks, oh my! Start reading the hottest books of the summer.

This Month's New Releases

From heart-pounding thrillers to poignant memoirs and everything in between, check out what's new this month.

Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love.

Book review: Scrublands by Chris Hammer

I’d had this book for a while before tucking into it Saturday evening in the bath. I wasn’t too sure it was for me, though I’m not sure why. Perhaps some antipathy towards what felt like ANOTHER book about small town or rural Australia? I’m not sure.

But… holy shit, this book blew me away! I was hooked from the get-go. The opening scene (prologue) is great. And kinda dire. The writing is excellent, the plot intriguing and the lead character, Martin is both enigmatic and very (very) real all at once. 

In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself. A year later, troubled journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. But the stories he hears from the locals about the priest and incidents leading up to the shooting don't fit with the accepted version of events his own newspaper reported in an award-winning investigation. Martin can't ignore his doubts, nor the urgings of some locals to unearth the real reason behind the priest's deadly rampage. Just as Martin believes he is making headway, a shocking new development rocks the town, which becomes the biggest story in Australia. The media descends on Riversend and Martin is now the one in the spotlight. His reasons for investigating the shooting have suddenly become very personal. Wrestling with his own demons, Martin finds himself risking everything to discover a truth that becomes darker and more complex with every twist. But there are powerful forces determined to stop him, and he has no idea how far they will go to make sure the town's secrets stay buried.

For Martin this is initially just a way to get back on top. He’s had a bad experience in the Middle East and it’s one that he thinks he should be over, but isn’t. This gig – a reflection on a town a year after a tragedy – isn’t meant to revisit the actions of the priest, Byron Swift, or question his motivations.

He’s not in town long though before he starts pondering exactly that. Swift, the cold killer who gunned down five people sounds nothing like the man many describe – reflecting a zen-like ‘goodness’ almost as if he’s not of this world (which worried me a few times that we were going to venture into some science fiction realm I didn’t see coming!). And Swift’s potential motivation. set out in Martin’s own colleague’s award-winning piece on the murders, doesn’t seem to resonate.

It turns out Swift is one of many enigmas inhabiting Riversend and its surrounds, and author (and journalist) Chris Hammer gives us an interesting array of locals.

Codger Harris is truly appalling, but the old man possesses an element of inexplicable charm. As if to underline the point, Codger reaches down and scratches his scrotum. Inexplicable is right. p 81

I should mention here Codger lives pretty much in isolation in the Scrublands and, as he puts it… lives in a ‘clothes-free zone’ cos it’s ‘too bloody hot for ’em.’ (So the scrotum-scratching thing while in the company of others isn’t terribly subtle!)

There’s a sense that Riversend is where people go to disappear. Until the actions of Byron Swift briefly brought the town onto the headlines, it’d gone on for years – secrets kept, grief buried and roles played.

Whether it could have gone on like that, if not for the murders, we’ll never know. But Swift’s actions blew the town, its secrets and its community apart.

Martin’s first impressions of Riversend as it is now (this ‘husk of a town’) remind me very much of my own childhood home town. Though it’s much larger and Maryborough’s not faced a tragedy that’s been as devastating (though it’s had its share of floods, highway bypasses and industry deaths) the main streets of the town sound like Riversend’s. On a larger scale.

Here (in Riversend), it feels a bit like people have given up on it. And those who haven’t, soon fall by the wayside or bide time until the inevitable.

But…. somewhere (simmering beneath the surface) there is a fighting spirit, as evidenced when the town’s fighting threatening bushfires.

Hammer’s writing is beautiful. It’s easy and comfortable but with a strong sense of trepidation. His words and descriptions are vivid and offer real texture. His ability to portray the desolation of Riversend, the Scrublands, its community and its inhabitants is impressive. And the scenes describing the onslaught of bushfires (in particular) elicit a sense of urgency and desperation that’s almost visceral.

Martin looks up through the blizzard of ash: the clouds that just a moment ago were black as coal are turning blood red, brighter and brighter as he watches, as if glowing from within, bathing the yard in orange light. And he can hear something in the distance, above the wind: a roaring, like a freight train heading straight towards them…. The roaring is almost upon them. Martin can hear explosions, like cracking whips or gunshots and as he gains the verandah he can glimpse it through the scrub, the licking orange tongues of death. p 100

And Martin is the perfect host for this confronting and complex journey. He’s narrating the events unfolding but smart enough to ponder the repercussions of his own actions and consider the benefits and implications of others; and this self-reflection was something I particularly appreciated.

There are obvious metaphors between Martin and the town of Riversend, both needing to heal but simultaneously being stuck in the past.

It makes Martin wonder about himself, why the experience in Gaza has left him so gutted, why the damage lingers. After all, he has lost no one, suffered no enduring injuries. Compared to the people in Riversend he got off lightly. p 124

And though I’m jumping ahead to the ‘destination’ rather than the journey…. Riversend is where Martin is confronted by the fact that he’s now (more than once) ‘become’ the story and changed professionally (and personally) as a result – understanding that might not be a bad thing…. ie. being more than an observer.

He was involved; he had no God-given leave pass, no right to stand apart from the story, apart from life. He was a participant, like it or not. Things no longer happened only to other people; some small part of their grief or their joy, or their hollowness wore off on him, became part of him. How had he ever thought otherwise. p 461

I’ve struggled with this review as I wanted to do this book justice. It’s an amazing read. Some will say reminiscent of novels like Jane Harper’s The Dry but for me it also reflects the poignancy of Favel Parrett’s writing and the sense of place offered up by Tim Winton, or Eliza Henry-Jones via Ache .

Scrublands by Chris Hammer was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin and now available.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.

• « Previous post
• Next Post »

Comments are closed.

Search my book reviews

• Book reviews by author
• Book reviews by genre
• Book reviews by rating

Hi, I’m Deborah… a seachanger living on Australia’s Fraser Coast, in Queensland. I write about books and life in general.

Don't miss out!

Subscribe to Debbish and receive notifications of new posts.

Email Address

Scrublands review – Chris Hammer adaptation is a rock solid addition to Australian rural noir

A journalist is assigned to write about a traumatic event, speaks to wary locals, scratches away layers of obfuscation and discovers All Is Not What It Seems. Yes, we’ve been here before. Ditto for crime stories based in rural Australian locations; the bounty for this year alone includes Deadloch , Black Snow , Bay of Fires , The Clearing and Ivan Sen’s feature film Limbo .

However, Stan’s new four-part mystery series Scrublands, directed by Greg McLean and adapted from Chris Hammer’s bestselling novel of the same name, demonstrates why genre-ified tropes and formulas have evergreen appeal if staged with some vim and flair.

These kinds of narratives don’t have to be fresh, per se: according to Campbellian wisdom there’s nothing new under the sun. But templated stories should always feel fresh and be invigoratingly staged. That’s certainly the case in Scrublands, which at its worst feels a little potboiler-ish but is grippingly sustained across four episodes of roughly one hour apiece and never overstays its welcome.

The series begins provocatively, with a priest – Jay Ryan’s Bryon Swift – shooting at his own congregation with a sniper rifle, murdering five people before turning the gun on himself. Not the most effective recruitment drive for the church. Twelve months later, a Sydney Morning Herald journalist – Luke Arnold’s Martin Scarsden – arrives in the town where it happened to pen a “one year on” anniversary article. One local accuses him of writing “torture porn” but Scarsden says his brief is a colour piece: “just weekend supplement stuff”. Nothing to challenge or upset people. The protagonist will change his tune, of course, when he gets an inkling that something is wrong with the official narrative and attaches himself to the story like a dog with lockjaw.

We know that things can’t be as they seem but we saw the priest killing in cold blood, so what kind of twists and turns await? Good mystery writing is sometimes about appearing to box things in, to construct narrative limitations before finding ways to circumvent them – by widening the context, perhaps, or unveiling different perspectives, or laying out a tangled backstory, all of which is the case in Scrublands. Like other crime mysteries such as The Dry , McLean alternates between timeframes, the current one having a hot glazed look, the palette taking on cooler hues during earlier times. The latter moments feel reflective, distanced from the white-hot part of the flame. Later on, these once-lighter looking scenes get warmer, signifying that the plotlines are merging and the drama is coming to a head.

Luke Arnold is a compelling lead: from the start you feel invested in his presence. When Arnold does that thing when an actor frowns while examining a piece of evidence, as if to say “now I’m putting two and two together”, he doesn’t overdo it; it feels genuine. This is a less showy performance than Simon Baker’s heroin-injecting cop in Limbo or Travis Fimmel’s sleepy-eyed detective in Black Snow – perhaps because Arnold is playing a journalist who can’t afford to indulge in too much self-destructive behaviour, with all those bloody deadlines to hit.

But when it comes to dramatic purpose, the journalist and the detective often occupy the same essential role: as upsetters of the apple cart, sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong, making people uncomfortable and creating a chemistry change that draws dormant feelings – and, of course, The Truth – to the surface.

Bella Heathcote, who co-starred in the excellent 2020 horror movie Relic , is very persuasive as Mandy Bond, who has, shall we say, unique knowledge of the late priest. Just by the way she holds herself, by the longing in her eyes, the actor very effectively communicates that Bond wants to be somewhere else, emotionally and physically.

As the aforementioned priest, Swift initially seems a little imposing and Ironman-like for a man of the cloth, as if he should be in a Nutri-Grain commercial rather than a confessional. But stay with it; this tale is tangled and things feel quite plausible (notwithstanding the need for a wee bit of disbelief suspension as it rolls and tumbles along).

Like much of McLean’s work, Scrublands can be a bit pulpy but here not in a bad way: this isn’t trashy or schlocky. It’s a rock-solid addition to the rural noir genre, engaging from the start, all the way to a satisfyingly explosive finale.

Scrublands is streaming now on Stan

Scrublands, Stan review: it delivers the goods

Scrublands. Image: Stan.

If you want to avoid becoming the tragic victim of a senseless crime, here’s a tip: stay away from small towns. Going by the last few years of Australian television – and increasingly the big screen as well – the only thing as common in isolated rural communities as murder is the arrival of an outsider not long after to uncover the town’s tangled web of dark secrets.

And so it proves to be with Scrublands , Stan’s latest locally made drama designed to appeal to fans of both Australia’s more interesting tourist-friendly locations and corpses. Working in Scrublands ’ favour is the memorable nature of the central crime, which even for the genre is attention-grabbing: one Sunday a year ago, the much-loved local priest (Jay Ryan) in the small town of Riversend walked out to meet his congregation with a high powered rifle in hand and gunned down five people. No wonder the novel it’s based on (by Chris Hammer) was a bestseller.

Experienced mystery watchers will already have their eyes out for clues. Trouble is, our viewpoint character is Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Martin Scarsden (Luke Arnold), who arrives in town looking to write little more than a ‘one year on, a battered town begins to heal’ puff piece. This is clearly a step down for such a gun reporter, but what would a mystery be without an investigator hiding a dark past of their own?

Gun-toting pastor

Oddly for a town where a priest shot dead five people in the street, it seems that opinion is divided on the gun-toting pastor. The public story is that he was a paedophile who turned on his community when the police were closing in. Yet strangely, ineffectual local constable Robbie Haus-Jones (Adam Zwar), who Scarsden has driven from Sydney to interview, doesn’t seem to want to talk full-stop, not even to push the official line.

The owner of the local bookstore, Mandy Bond (Bella Heathcote), turns on Scarsden when she learns he’s a journalist, the local kids mock him, and the pub’s closed. The story seems a dead end, but he needs the work; he hasn’t delivered a story in months. Is he willing to go deeper than the ‘predator priest goes apeshit’ stories the locals have all heard before? Well, there are three more episodes to go.

Generic setting aside (Australia has two kinds of murderous small towns: dusty ones and damp ones) there’s a lot going on in Scrublands . Some of the mysteries are handled better than others: Ryan is the least likely looking priest ever, which doesn’t so much foreshadow one early twist as give it away. And a police poster of a missing couple gets dropped in early and then forgotten for so long it’s likely you’ll forget it too.

But once we start getting the flashbacks to the priest’s time in town things pick up. With his helpful ways and thoughtful sermons he really does seem too good to be true, while one of his victims was the kind of chump who comes into Sunday mass to drop a fart.

The only local who firmly comes out against the priest is a farmer (Robert Taylor) who turns out to have a secret or two of his own. And when people in the street are having conversations like ‘I thought we agreed to let the past stay in the past’, you know there’s a lot more dirt to be dug up.

As the writer/ director of the Wolf Creek films, series director Greg McLean knows his way around outback crime. He gives Riversend (the sign as you come into town now reads ARSE END, nice work local vandals) an authentically parched vibe without overselling things. Having a couple of bored kids dirt biking around goes a long way towards making the place seem like an actual small town – though Scarsden staying at a crummy hotel called The Black Dog might be pushing it a little.

Arnold’s performance keeps Scarsden on the right side of plausible and keeps the story interesting even when we know more than he does. Heathcote is just as good as the local who’s egging him on to dig deeper … just so long as he doesn’t dig up her past. Also appearing in flashbacks (you can tell it’s the past because her hair is messier) with her cancer mum (Alison Whyte) gives her a different register to play – and a reason for her character to want the truth about the priest to come out.

If you want the pleasures of genre fiction, you have to be willing to go along with the conventions. Scrublands doesn’t break new ground, but if you’re after a solidly entertaining mystery it delivers the goods. There’s a lot going on, the cast is strong, and the priest seems to have only gunned down the town’s scuzziest residents so you know the place was rotten to the core.

Plus there’s a running joke that everywhere Scarsden goes he can’t find working wifi (at one stage he actually uses a pay phone). Will this inability to communicate with the outside world become important once things get serious further down the track?

Guess you’ll have to keep watching.

All four episodes of Scrublands are available on Stan from 16 November.

Anthony Morris

Anthony Morris is a freelance film and television writer. He’s been a regular contributor to The Big Issue, Empire Magazine, Junkee, Broadsheet, The Wheeler Centre and Forte Magazine, where he’s currently the film editor. Other publications he’s contributed to include Vice, The Vine, Kill Your Darlings (where he was their online film columnist), The Lifted Brow, Urban Walkabout and Spook Magazine. He’s the co-author of hit romantic comedy novel The Hot Guy, and he’s also written some short stories he’d rather you didn’t mention. You can follow him on Twitter @morrbeat and read some of his reviews on the blog It’s Better in the Dark.

Related News

The Sympathizer, Binge – streaming preview

Robert Downey Jr, Sandra Oh and Australian actor Hoa Xuande star in this new miniseries based on the novel by…

Paul Dalgarno

Disney+: Shōgun reimagines 1980 series for a new generation of viewers

From novel to 1980s miniseries, and now a prestige remake for FX and Disney+, Shōgun has had quite the journey.

The Conversation

What’s new to streaming this week on Netflix, Stan, SBS, ABC, BritBox, Prime, AMC+ and more

Your guide to the best new shows and films to stream from 1 to 7 April in Australia.

Stan: new shows streaming this week

Your guide to what's new to stream from 1 to 7 April on Stan in Australia.

SBS On Demand: new shows streaming this week

Your guide to what's new to stream from 1 to 7 April on SBS On Demand in Australia.

Want more content?

Get free newsletters full of the best in Australian screen news, jobs and more delivered to your inbox!

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• March Madness
• AP Top 25 Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Trump is selling ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills

Former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, released a video on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday urging supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad.

FILE - President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park from the White House, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Trump is now selling Bibles as he runs to return to the White House. The presumptive Republican nominee released a video on his Truth Social platform Tuesday urging his supporters to purchase the “God Bless The USA Bible.” (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

• Copy Link copied

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is now selling Bibles as he runs to return to the White House.

Trump, who became the presumptive Republican nominee earlier this month, released a video on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday urging his supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” which is inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad. Trump takes the stage to the song at each of his rallies and has appeared with Greenwood at events.

“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible,” Trump wrote, directing his supporters to a website selling the book for $59.99.

The effort comes as Trump has faced a serious money crunch amid mounting legal bills while he fights four criminal indictments along with a series of civil charges. Trump was given a reprieve Monday when a New York appeals court agreed to hold off on collecting the more than $454 million he owes following a civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. Trump has already posted a $92 million bond in connection with defamation cases brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll , who accused Trump of sexual assault.

“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump said in the video posted on Truth Social. “I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.”

Billing itself as “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!” the new venture’s website calls it “Easy-to-read” with “large print” and a “slim design” that “invites you to explore God’s Word anywhere, any time.”

Besides a King James Version translation, it includes copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as a handwritten chorus of the famous Greenwood song.

The Bible is just the latest commercial venture that Trump has pursued while campaigning.

Last month, he debuted a new line of Trump-branded sneakers , including $399 gold “Never Surrender High-Tops,” at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia. The venture behind the shoes, 45Footwear, also sells other Trump-branded footwear, cologne and perfume.

Trump has also dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.

Donald Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here .

He has also released books featuring photos of his time in office and letters written to him through the years.

The Bible’s website states the product “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.”

“GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates,” it says.

Instead, it says, “GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure, has a similar arrangement with 45Footwear, which also says it uses Trump’s “name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

A Trump spokesperson and God Bless the USA Bible did not immediately respond to questions about how much Trump was paid for the licensing deal or stands to make from each book sale.

Trump remains deeply popular with white evangelical Christians , who are among his most ardent supporters, even though the thrice-married former reality TV star has a long history of behavior that often seemed at odds with teachings espoused by Christ in the Gospels.

When he was running in 2016, Trump raised eyebrows when he cited “Two Corinthians” at Liberty University, instead of the standard “Second Corinthians.”

When asked to share his favorite Bible verse in an interview with Bloomberg Politics in 2015, he demurred.

“I wouldn’t want to get into it. Because to me, that’s very personal,” he said. “The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.”

When he was president, law enforcement officers aggressively removed racial justice protesters from a park near the White House, allowing Trump to walk to nearby St. John’s Church, where he stood alone and raised a Bible. The scene was condemned at the time by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Before he ran for office, Trump famously hawked everything from frozen steaks to vodka to a venture named Trump University, which was later sued for fraud .

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

The Exvangelicals review: fine study of faith under fire in the age of Trump

Sarah McCammon of NPR brings personal experience and reportorial rigor to her portrayal of a growing Christian crisis

S arah McCammon’s new book about “exvangelicals” like herself is a powerful memoir of her complicated journey away from Christian fundamentalism. Because she experienced it from the inside, she is also able to give the rest of us one of the best explanations I have ever read of how so many Americans became part of the non-reality-based cult that remains so stubbornly addicted to the insanities of Donald Trump .

Brought up by rigorous evangelicals equally opposed to abortion and in favor of corporal punishment of their children, McCammon grew up inside a religious bubble supposedly designed to protect everyone within it from the evils of a secular world.

Now 43 and a national political correspondent for NPR, she was born at the dawn of the Reagan administration, which also marked the beginning of the alliance between religious extremism and the Republican party.

The number of Americans who identified as evangelical or “born again” peaked in 2004, when it reached 30%. McCammon’s parents, though, came of age at the height of the Vietnam war and the sexual revolution. Like millions of others who felt unhinged by the chaos, they cast aside the “love ethos” of their youth, replacing “drug culture and anti-war protests” with “praise choruses” and the teachings of religious reactionaries such as James Dobson.

The McCammons took Dobson’s teachings very seriously, especially his book Dare to Discipline, which taught them to spank babies as young as 15 months and to use “a small switch or belt”, which should be seen by the child as an “object of love rather than an instrument of punishment”.

As the historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez has explained, McCammon’s generation grew up during the creation of “a massive industry of self-reinforcing Christian media and organizations” and a media network that functioned “less as a traditional soul-saving enterprise and more as a means by which evangelicals … maintained their own identity”. Or as DL Mayfield, another writer born into an evangelical family, put it: “Being born into white evangelicalism as marketers were figuring out how to package and sell Christian nationalism … was really bad timing.”

The literal interpretation of the Bible McCammon grew up with required the rejection of evolution. Everything, including “our understanding of basic scientific facts”, had to be “subordinated to this vision of scripture”. By pulling their children out of public schools, parents could guarantee that “they could graduate from high school without ever taking a course on evolution or sex ed” and then move “seamlessly to a four-year Christian college with the same philosophy”.

Evolution had been invented by scientists so they could reject God’s authority and construct “a world … where they were free to pursue their sinful lusts and selfish desires. What other motive could there be” for dismissing the story of Adam and Eve?

The real-world consequences of this indoctrination include a Republican party blithely unconcerned with the effects of global warming. As Jocelyn Howard, an exvangelical interviewed by McCammon, observes: “When you’re taught that science is basically a fairytale … then why would you care if the world is burning around us … The world around us doesn’t matter, because this is all going to burn like in Revelations anyway.”

By distancing so many evangelicals from mainstream thought, their leaders created “a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories that can be nearly impossible to eradicate”. As Ed Stetzer, an evangelical pastor and executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center told FiveThirtyEight : “People of faith believe there is a divine plan – that there are forces of good and forces of evil … QAnon is a train that runs on the tracks that religion has already put in place.”

Part of the time, McCammon manages to remember her youth with humor, particularly in a passage describing a discussion of the meaning of “oral sex” with her mother, inspired by the release of Ken Starr’s report about Bill Clinton’s interactions with Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House.

“I think,” said the author’s mother, “if you have Jesus, you don’t need oral sex.”

McCammon can’t remember how she responded but she has been “telling that story for decades when people ask me to describe my childhood”.

The first cracks in her evangelical faith began when she spent a semester as a Senate page and befriended a fellow page who was a Muslim.

after newsletter promotion

“Do you believe that because I’m Muslim I’m going to hell?” he asked.

“Suddenly,” McCammon writes, “everything that felt wrong about the belief system I had been told to promote crystalized in my mind.” All she could muster in response to his question was: “‘I don’t know. I think it’s between you and god.’”

By the time she graduated from college, McCammon “was exhausted from trying to get my brain to conform to the contours of the supposed truth I‘d been taught. Why did certain types of knowledge seem forbidden, and why were only our experts to be trusted?”

Her solution was to choose a career in journalism: “I craved a space to ask questions about the way the world really was, and the freedom to take in new sources of information. Journalism required that: it honored the process of seeking truth and demanded the consideration of multiple points of view.”

This book is an elegant testament to how well McCammon has learned her craft. The hopeful message she leaves us with is that her own journey is being replicated by millions of others in her generation, many finally convinced to abandon their faith because of the racism and xenophobia embraced by evangelicals’ newest and most unlikely savior: Trump.

Since 2006, evangelical Protestants have experienced “the most precipitous drop in affiliation” among Americans, according to the Public Religion Research Institute , shrinking from 23% in 2006 to 14% in 2020. In November, we will learn if that is enough to keep democracy alive.

The Exvangelicals is published in the US by St Martin’s Press

• Religion (Books)
• Politics books
• US politics
• The far right
• Donald Trump
• Republicans

Most viewed