KT Major

Wow. I’ve loved Chris Hammer’s work since Scrublands. He has the ability to make fictional places teem with life, from the detailed map of The Valley, to its people’s thoughts, struggles and way of life. Combine that with an uncanny knack of weaving in plot twists - turning expectations on their head just when you were sure of what’s happening. But the genius is not only in the unravelling of a sprawling, epoch-traversing, place-based mystery with juicy crimes of corruption, gang heists, murder and fraud. It’s in the marionetting of the emotional and relationship threads of the characters so that you are highly invested till the very last page. AND throw in meticulous research on the industry of mining! It all made for an enjoyable read with a payoff that was resonant and fulfilling. All bow to Chris, the Hammer of crime fiction.

Review with spoilers ahead: I don’t think I have read a book quite like Rapture by Emily Maguire. The novel is a meticulously researched combination of history, legend, speculation on the life of Pope Joan. A brilliant girl Agnes is forced to disguise herself as a monk, and ascends through the ranks to the papal throne.

The prose seems almost Biblical, in that it resembles the allegorical style of stories in the Bible. That’s not to say that it “breaks” the rules of “show, don’t tell”, because the character of Agnes is revealed through beautiful storytelling techniques. But a lot happens within the space of one paragraph, so much that you feel like you’ve transcended epochs by the time you reach the end of a chapter. And yet this astonishing story sticks with you, with its feminist themes, its reimagination of Agnes’ inner world, spiritual self, sexual desires and changing relationship with God; from its humble beginnings of a girl eavesdropping under a dinner table to its finale of triumph and defeat, hate and love, birth and death. It’s hard to explain how we get to the final image of a disguised Pope giving birth on a donkey, but I can tell you, it was a heck of a wild ride.