Book review: Broke Road by Matthew Spencer

I very much enjoyed Broke Road by Matthew Spencer though must confess I remembered little detail from the first book of the series, Black River, published in 2022. I really liked our lead, Rose Riley—a detective who seems to be a roaming homicide squad detective—here partnered with Priya Patel and on the trail of a killer. I did remember Adam Bowman quite well, who described himself [in the first book] as a mediocre journalist whose career was going nowhere fast. The case in Black River was quite personal as it took him back to his hometown where his brother had died and family fallen apart years earlier. When he reappears here he’s found some fame and fortune from a true crime book based on Riley’s investigation.

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.

I really like the way Spencer unpicks the crime here, and he’s able to pull readers into the investigation itself. Naturally the victim’s husband is the key suspect despite an alibi… until Riley finds links to a similar murder and contacts those detectives, piecing the cases’ connections together.

Spencer again throws in local flavour – which he did in Black River as well, giving us a sense of ‘place’. Here we’re in wine country so the community of Red Creek (near Cessnock) grows on weekends and during tourist seasons but is also rife with development thrown into the mix with old farming families.

Of course when Bowman knows that Riley and Patel are on the case, he requests the story (now able to pick and choose what he covers) and easily ingratiates himself with the locals. Spencer brings those characters to life through Bowman’s interactions with them, putting us there in the thick of things, as he gathers intel and gossip he shares with Riley and Patel.

This is another great read from Spencer and I appreciated that he balances the unfolding investigations with the characters’ own personal evolutions. And of course there’s still a sense that something could develop between Riley and the Bowman but they’re not quite there yet.

Broke Road by Matthew Spencer will be published in Australia by Allen & Unwin on 1 July 2025.

I won a copy of this book from Better Reading, so sharing my review early.