The Seven

Another excellent crime novel by Chris Hammer. The Seven is set in the irrigation area of New South Wales where seven families are prominent in the management of the local irrigation scheme and much of the land covered by the scheme. When a body is found in one of the irrigation channels the police investigation discovers that all is not what it seems at Yuwonderie.

When Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan arrive in the area to investigate the murder they discover similarities to another murder of a family member of The Seven thirty years earlier. Could the two cases be connected?

There are three threads that reveal the story in the novel - correspondence between Bessie Walker and her mother in 1913, the death of Davis Heartwood in 1993 and the recent death of Athol Hasluck. 

Davis decided not to run the family property after his grandfather's death. Instead he wanted to continue his studies at university, starting with an honours thesis on the early development of the irrigation scheme at Yuwonderie. His initial investigations show that nine families had planned to set up the scheme, three families had dropped out to be replaced by one more family. It soon becomes obvious that many questions needed to be answered. Then Davis and his girlfriend disappeared. Ivan and Nell discover that current members of The Seven are also wary of investigations into the history of the local area. There has obviously been corruption in place for many years but uncovering it proves to be a challenge.