An Afternoon of Crime with Chris Hammer and Benjamin Stevenson

About the presenters Chris Hammer is a bestselling Australian crime fiction author. His debut novel Scrublands (2018) became an immediate bestseller, won the UK Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey Award in 2019, and was shortlisted for multiple Australian and US awards. It has been translated widely and adapted into a successful television series.

Hammer’s subsequent novels—Silver (2019), Trust (2020), Treasure & Dirt (2021), The Tilt (2022), The Seven (2023), and The Valley (2024)—have all been bestsellers and finalists for major literary prizes. Legacy is his eighth book.

Before writing fiction, he spent over thirty years as a journalist, reporting for SBS TV from more than thirty countries and working in senior political roles for The Bulletin, The Age, and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is also the author of two non-fiction works, The River and The Coast. Hammer holds a journalism degree from Charles Sturt University and a master’s in international relations from the Australian National University.

Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and USA Today best-selling author. He is the author of the globally popular ‘Ernest Cunningham Mysteries’, including Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, which is currently being adapted into a major HBO TV series, and the sequels: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect and Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret. His books have sold over 1.5 million copies in twenty-nine territories and have been nominated for nine ‘Book of the Year’ awards.

Jaye Ford's first novel won two Davitt Awards for Australian women crime writers and her books have been translated into nine languages. She is a former news and sport journalist, was the first woman to host a live national sport show on Australian TV and ran her own public relations consultancy before turning to fiction. She now writes from her home in Newcastle, New South Wales. She publishes contemporary women's fiction and romantic comedy under the alter-ego Janette Paul.