Crime fiction has its own category on the shelves of bookshops but when a book is set in Balmain, local characters and special places lift it out of genre.
Matthew Spencer, an ex-journo at The Australian, grew up nearby on the grounds of a private school on the Parramatta River. The school is the setting for his first book Black River and the local pubs in Darling Street the landmarks.
The novel’s main character Adam Bowman is also a journo, one with a sad past, a hangdog approach to news and a drinking problem. He is quite believable. The booze appears to be his only personality flaw, however. With a healthy diet, a cottage in Balmain and a laidback personality, he tries not to offend.
That’s until he meets Detective Sergeant Rose Riley who reads his passive behaviour as a possible sign of guilt in a serial killer case that has the police suddenly experts in psychology.
When Riley invites herself around to dinner at Bowman’s place, she comes with a mate as back-up and leaves quick smart with a bottle for DNA testing. There’s something of the “mongrol” about her that the journalist likes.
The shenanigans of this pair of battlers make Black River a cut above the kind of police procedural that is all about solving a murder and getting into the police mindset.
The best bits are when they forget about the case and engage in repartee about what’s on the record or try and outsmart Beat-up Benny, a headline-grabbing competitor who doesn’t bother with the footwork.
“We don’t profile anymore,” Riley tells Bowman, when they discuss the identity of the killer. “It’s too blunt and everyone’s gone PC. We’re in the age of terror and terrorism profiles always say the same thing: look for an Arab with a beard.” Except they were profiling, she says to herself. He didn’t need to know that.
Black River did well, winning the Best Debut Crime Fiction, Danger Awards, 2023, and selling 50,000 copies in Australia and the United States.
The spratting pair of ironic Sydney characters is now back in a second novel Broke Road, just about to be released, and Spencer is waiting for advance copies to arrive at his local bookshop.
He’s taken a big risk and set the novel in the Hunter Valley, outside his comfort zone. At first, the journalist wasn’t even in the book, he said. The publishers wanted him to focus on the cop.
“The second book has been tough,” he told AAR. “It took longer than it should have, about three years. When you are writing a second novel the publishers and editors are looking over your shoulder.”
Bowman, in Broke Road, has left journalism and is writing true crime. “Through this story he’s had his first success in his personal life,” Spencer says. “His non-fiction book has sold well. It’s his next step away from the daily grind. He has a bit of money behind him.”
The cop hasn’t read the book, naturally. “‘Why would I bother?’ She starts to hear about it from people. She hears from her junior colleagues. He is interesting to her. He reads, knows things about the world. It took me a while to figure that out.”
At the emotional heart of the fictional terrain is a love of the bush – remnants remain at the Parramatta school – and the kind of desperate story-telling strategies journalists invent.
Spencer worked in the media for 20 years, in editorial positions and “marginal” areas such as education and the hierarchies, long hours, death knocks and short deadlines are poignantly covered in the character of Bowman.
The third book will be set back in the harbour where bodies have a habit of turning up and, hopefully, in the pubs of Balmain where pros can relax for a few short moments.
Mathew Spencer’s Broke Road is published by Allen&Unwin Book Publishers and will be available in store from 1 July 2025.
Image: Matthew Spencer at Roaring Stories bookshop in Balmain – photo by Rhonda Dredge
Words: Rhonda Dredge