Arts & Culture
27 January, 2026
Scarsden will live on says best-selling author says
Martin Scarsden. Journalist. He’s flawed. He makes mistakes. He tries to do the right thing. He’s human.
Martin Scarsden. Journalist. He’s flawed. He makes mistakes. He tries to do the right thing.
He’s human.
Most importantly for Australian author Chris Hammer fans – Scarsden will live on.
Hammer says he is not done with the much-loved character just yet after his latest offering, Legacy.
He is working on a new novel that will hit the shelves later this year.
For Hammer fans, Scarsden first appeared in Scrublands – a best-selling novel and Stan television series hit.
Hammer, a former journalist himself, says Scarsden is still evolving.
“I’m not sure how far I will take him, but I’m not finished with him yet,” he told The Southern Wire.
Despite the success of Scrublands on the big screen, Hammer has no ambitions to pursue a career in the television or movie industry as a scriptwriter.
“I’ll stick to writing novels because I love it,” he told The Southern Wire.
“I want to get better at it and I don’t want to spread myself too thin.
“I did spend a week in the writers’ room for an upcoming series. It was enormous fun and very instructive but I think I’m better off concentrating on the books,” he said
Hammer says he has drawn on his personal experience to shape Scarsden but the character isn’t autobiographical.
“His character was initially based on some of the war correspondents I encountered when I was a roving correspondent for SBS,” he said.
“So at the start of Scrublands, he’s in his early 40s, is suffering from PTSD and hasn’t experienced a proper adult relationship.
“That isn’t me at all,” he said.
“But my experience as a journalist gave me an insight into the methodology, psychology and priorities of journalists.”
Hence why Scarsden is so believable. And so likeable.
Hammer has undeniably helped cement the credibility of Australian crime fiction on the global stage over the past decade.
“There’s long been a fair bit of Australian crime fiction, but you’re right, it was rather niche, published by Australian independents rather than the big global publishers,” he said.
“Authors like Peter Temple, Peter Corris, Shane Maloney and Garry Disher.
“The big change came in 2016 with Jane Harper’s The Dry, published by one of the big five global publishers. That was a huge success.
“After that, all the other publishers saw there was money to be made from Australian crime. I was definitely a beneficiary of that.
“It has been very satisfying to be part of the new wave of Australian crime authors who have emerged during the past 10 years or so.
“I think Australian readers are now much more willing to judge local authors on their merits.”
“Hopefully I played a small part in consolidating the reputation of Australian crime fiction – which has continued to go from strength to strength.”
He has done so first through Scrublands (2018) and then through Silver (2019), Trust (2020), Treasure and Dirt (2021), The Tilt (2022), The Seven (2023), The Valley (2024) and more recently through Legacy (2025).
Hammer says he never really drew inspiration from other authors as a younger writer.
“I was never really a ‘younger’ writer,” he told The Southern Wire this week.
“My first non-fiction (The River) was published when I was 49 and I was 57 when Scrublands was published.
“But an early and continuing influence is the late great Australian crime fiction author Peter Temple.
“He was my writing lecturer when I studied journalism at Bathurst in the early 1980s.”
Hammer says he found the transition from journalist to author relatively easy to navigate, making the move from fact to fiction.
“I found the transition relatively easy,” he told The Southern Wire.
After a career focusing on facts, he is now revelling in fiction.
“My first two books were narrative non-fiction, so I think they helped me make the transition,” he said.
“I love fiction – I find making stuff up liberating after all those years dedicated to facts.”
Hammer grew up in Canberra before relocating to Bathurst for his studies.
As a journalist he often travelled to regional areas so the very realistic background to his books comes from lived experience rather hours spent hunched over travel guides.
His first two books (The River and The Coast) helped provide locations that he has used in his crime novels.
Including Bowral.
Hammer’s latest novel provides an interesting Southern Highlands twist with reference to a fictional murder linked to some of the novel’s main characters.
The murder involves a ‘brutal and unprovoked attack’ on a ‘well-known collector and patron of the arts’ at his estate named Pembroke, ‘three kilometres outside of Bowral”.
“I’ve often visited Bowral as I’ve spent much of my life travelling between Canberra and Sydney,” he told The Southern Wire.
“I almost used Bowral in an earlier book (Trust) but relocated those scenes to Sydney at the last moment.
“Bowral has the advantage of being rural but also being well connected into Sydney wealth and power.”
Even Hammer struggles to explain why his novels have been so popular overseas.
“It’s hard to say why the books appeal to international audiences,” he said.
“I think for many, Australia is quite an exotic location.
“I think for the Brits it’s a mix of the familiar and the exotic – and rather appealing to read during the depths of a northern winter.”
So what is Hammer reading?
“In the rural noir space I’d recommend anything by Margaret Hickey and I really liked Michael Brissenden’s latest (Dust) and Tim Aliffe’s new one (Dark Desert Road).
“Also Candice Fox whose Australian books are a little more thriller orientated and Christian White, whose books are self-contained psychological dramas, often with a big twist.
“I loved Sally Hepworth’s latest (Mad Mabel) – she’s become real master of the so-called domestic noir.
“And for a change of pace, Sulari Gentill’s books like The Woman in the Library and Benjamin Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series are great fun and very clever.
“I’d also recommend anything from the UK author Chris Whitaker and US author S.A. Cosby.
“Also Michael Robotham, who is a globally successful Australian author, although his books to date have been set in the UK,” Hammer said.
Read More: Southern Highlands, Wollondilly, Southern Tablelands, Bowral