Black River

He’s been dubbed the Blue Moon Killer: someone who has been killing young women along Sydney’s Parramatta River whenever the moon is full. Sydney is on edge, and the cops, led by Rose Riley and Steve O’Neil, know they need to figure out the killer’s identity soon. When another young woman is found dead on the grounds of an exclusive private school, cleaned and wrapped in plastic like the others, O’Neil thinks there are too many discrepancies and it’s a copycat. Riley, however, thinks the murders are related, and that having the media onside will help. Enter journalist Adam Bowman, for whom the school holds many bitter memories. Adam knows only one thing: that running this story might just break him. An on-the-ground procedural that feels honest about the legwork without ever slowing down the pace, Black River charts a chilling murder investigation with a cast of characters ranging from forensic psychiatrists to new detectives. These people are flawed, skilled and determined, and their story transports the reader to the waters of the Parramatta River, leaving unease and mistrust in its wake. For those who love the idea of P M Newton’s savvy cops working alongside a Chris Hammer-style cunning journalist, all set in the glossy but sinister Sydney of Loraine Peck, this is your next gripping Australian crime read. *Fiona Hardy is a children’s author and a bookseller at Readings. *

Matthew Spencer was a journalist at The Australian for twenty years, with long stints running the Foreign News desk and as Opinion Editor. He has written for newspapers and magazines in Uganda and Kenya and been published in The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald.

He was born in Parramatta. The son of teachers, he lived with his sister Kate on the 320-acre campus of a boys’ boarding school. Long summers on the largely deserted property while exploring the remnant bush with its tributary of the Parramatta River inspired this book.

Black River is to be published by Allen and Unwin in June 2022.

Matthew lives in Sydney with his wife, Ritu Gupta, and their three children.