In Australia’s bucolic wine country, a homicide detective is on the hunt for a killer with a ruthless agenda in a gripping novel of suspense by the author of Black River.
A young woman is found dead in her isolated town house in rural Red Creek, an up-and-coming wine tourism destination outside Sydney. No forced entry. No signs of struggle. And her geologist husband has an alibi, though it’s not exactly solid. While a tabloid journalist is quick to spin her own damning narrative, homicide detective Rose Riley is questioning everything she sees—especially in a rapidly developing community that already seems on edge.
While Riley and her partner, Priya Patel, work the case with a local detective, crime reporter Adam Bowman follows his own leads. Then forensic evidence matches that of a pair of unsolved murders elsewhere in two other married women, murdered months apart yet in the exact same manner. Riley realizes she’s dealing with a serial killer. But one whose victims weren’t random. These women were chosen, watched, and targeted for a purpose.
As the secrets in this small town emerge, the suspects mount. Now Riley must unearth the deadliest secret of all—the true motive behind the murders—before another woman dies.
Broke Road, Matthew Spencer
BROKE ROAD is the follow up to the excellent BLACK RIVER, the opening salvo in the series, featuring the determined and dedicated DS Rose Riley, journalist Adam Beaumont, and a serial killer that didn't make this reviewer want to chuck that first book against a wall, hard.
Riley is back, with her sidekick Priya Patel, and Beaumont, this time in the wine tourism area of the Hunter Valley around Cessnock when a young woman is found dead in an isolated new townhouse, by her husband late one night. No forced entry and no signs of a struggle means that the husband is obviously suspect number one, and whilst a local tabloid journalist is busy spinning her own story about all of that, Riley is questioning everything and everybody. When Beaumont arrives on scene they slip back into the sort of working relationship that opened up in the first novel, collaborative without being unbelievable, cautious and friendly, Riley, Patel and Beaumont are joined by a local cop this time, in an investigation that takes some most unexpected turns along the way.
There are quite a few references back to the earlier novel, particularly in terms of how these three main characters met, and developed the friendship that they have. This novel also looks back a little further at Riley's own childhood, in this region, on a farm that was marginal, before the wine industry moved in and turned the place into a tourism mecca. There are nice touches of the clash between the old and the new, the old pub where Beaumont finds himself staying, compared to the swish new, hands off model motel where the women are staying. The older residents, many of whom have now found work, for the incomers, the big winemakers, the restaurateurs and the entrepreneurs. The differences between the region midweek and weekends when the tourists arrive, and finally the tension between the mining industry and the winemakers, something reflected in the household of the dead woman who worked in PR and marketing for the wine industry, and her coal mining geologist husband.
Whilst there is a lot going on locally, including some hefty doses of corruption involving some of those wealthy incomers, the police and the local media, the investigation finds tentacles outside the area - to Adelaide, Canberra and potentially other locations, and it's those leads that flush out some complicated connections. To say nothing of the goings on at the motel where RIley and Patel are staying. All of which makes up for a wild ride of a read, which for this reviewer, was basically a one sitting inhalation.
The balance between personal and professional here is great, as is the sheer slog of detective work, analysis and thinking outside the box that goes towards an investigation that could easily have got bogged in the local. The characters are great - flawed but not overtly so, dedicated, determined, and a bit messy along the way, these three are a great, and surprisingly believable team, given we're talking a journo and a couple of cops. The friendship is well portrayed, the interactions really fun to read, and the sense of place well executed.
Wine growing areas, where the tourists and the developers arrive in a landscape that's originally settled into marginal farming, with old families, old connections, and many layers of stories make for an interesting place to set a story that's about the murder of an incomer, a woman who on the face of it had no reason to die. Take that idyllic place, and stick in an undercurrent of sick, perverted weirdo's and you've got a well executed, disquieting novel that works on a number of levels.
NOTE: For the American audience that this has obviously been "edited" for - Shoes and Tires would be Shoes and Tyres here / for local audiences if you do happen to come across that edition, the shoes aren't looking for a lie in.... (Why publishers do this is beyond me, I mean we can "translate" the reverse - seems a bit disrespectful to suggest your reader's can't do the same ... ).