A controversial entrepreneur is murdered in a remote mountain valley, but this is no ordinary case. Ivan and Nell are soon contending with cowboy lawyers, conmen, bullion thieves and grave robbers. But it’s when Nell discovers the victim is a close blood relative that the past begins to take on a looming significance.

What did take place in The Valley all those years ago? What was Nell’s mother doing there, and what was her connection to troubled young police officer Simmons Burnside? And why do the police hierarchy insist Ivan and Nell stay with the case despite an obvious conflict of interest?

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Chris Hammer about how his early non-fiction became the foundation for his crime thrillers, how his landscapes in rural Australia give rise to his characters and plots, and why small towns are great places for setting crime fiction.