“Black River” is Matthew Spencer’s debut novel, in which he has combined his experience as a journalist and his childhood memories of living in a largely deserted massive boarding school to create this story.

The story primarily follows two main characters — Adam Bowman, a journalist past his prime and detective Sgt. Rose Riley, a cop with strong conviction and great instincts. When a young woman is found dead within one of the properties of Prince Albert College, an elite boarding school, with enough similarities to recent murders that had happened along the Parramatta River, the investigation into her leads the police into a cat-and-mouse game opposite an elusive killer.

Adam Bowman is urged by his editor to cover the news, owing to the fact that he had lived there his entire childhood. Riley and Adam’s paths cross when Adam tries to get information that other journalists can’t, as they don’t have the intimate knowledge about the place that Adam has. Riley and her supervisor decide to use Adam’s knowledge in exchange for his exclusive access to the people involved in the case. Will their efforts be fruitful? What transpires off their investigation? Do the police manage to catch the killer?

I must say the story was interesting from the get go. The author has woven the story with a lot of intricacies that manage to capture the reader’s attention and hold it. The investigation and the people conducting the investigation are all as realistic as can be. Just as it might in real life, the case confounds the police many times.

Riley doesn’t get any supernatural epiphany regarding the perpetrator, nor does she circumvent procedure and that was in a way, very refreshing. Also, the identity of the killer when revealed does not seem preposterous nor has it been made shocking just for the sake of it. These factors make the reader feel that they are standing next to an investigator and watching the events unfold.

However, I did have a problem with the narrative style and comprehensible quality of the writing. It might be because of the Australian slang that has been used largely here, most of which I don’t understand, or it might be that it is the author’s style. I am reluctant to read the next book in the series, even though I am interested to see where it goes, because of this issue.

This book makes for a fairly enjoyable read, if you don’t have trouble following Australian slang and would like to read something fairly engaging.

This book gets 4 out of 5 stars.