BLACK RIVER
by Matthew Spencer
The murder of a third girl in an affluent Sydney suburb brings out an army of police and press.
A young woman is brutally killed on the campus of Prince Albert, a private boys’ boarding school in suburban Sydney. She's assumed to be the latest casualty of the Blue Moon Killer, who’s currently at large. This victim is Marguerite Dunlop, daughter of the school chaplain and a recent graduate of a neighboring girls’ school. Reporter Adam Bowman, an alumnus of Prince Albert, is sent to cover this hot story with orders to stay out of the way of his brash colleague “Beat-Up” Benny Diamond, who’s already reporting on BMK for their newspaper. Meanwhile, the investigation by DCI Steve O’Neil and DS Rose Riley is underway. A police team dubbed Strike Force Satyr that’s also investigating BMK is on the scene as well. Riley and O’Neil’s methodical gathering of forensic evidence and questioning of witnesses alternates with Bowman’s more personal reminiscences and interviews. An additional perspective is provided by DC Priya Patel, a young officer with a justifiable chip on her shoulder over “a lifetime of explaining yourself to dumb fucks.” Spencer’s fiction debut, the first installment in a planned Rose Riley series, features a straightforward detective plot that’s enriched and deepened by touching on issues of class, race, and gender.
An engaging police procedural with a little something extra.