Alex Hammond


Alex Hammond is an Australian crime fiction writer. He is also published under the name A. W. Hammond.

Life

In 1981 he emigrated to Australia with his family. He graduated in Law/Arts from Melbourne University in 2001 and worked for several law firms before becoming an editor and web manager for the University of Melbourne and later RMIT University.

Author

In 1997, 1998, and 1999 he wrote several short stories for Inferno! Tales of Fantasy & Adventure, a publication of Black Library and Games Workshop. The short stories were, The Demon Bottle for issue 1, The Emperor's Grace for issue 3, A World Above for issue 6, Ancient Lances for issue 11, and Rat in the Walls for issue 14.
His first novel, Blood Witness, is a contemporary crime thriller set in Melbourne featuring defence lawyer Will Harris. It was short-listed for a Ned Kelly Award for Australian Crime Writing in 2014. It and its sequel, The Unbroken Line were optioned for a TV Series.
Of his third novel, The Paris Collaborator, The Sydney Morning Herald said he "artfully constructs this historical thriller within a paranoid and desperate city, creating plenty of twist and tension." The novel is set in German-occupied Paris and follows former schoolteacher Auguste Duchene as he searches for missing people in the days before the battle for the city's liberation. In its sequel The Berlin Traitor, Duchene finds himself in post-war Berlin, involved in the hunt for a Nazi war criminal and relying on his wits to survive the beginnings of the Cold War.

Interviews