ARC REVIEW: Black River – by Matthew Spencer

Title: Black River
(Rose Riley #1)
Author: Matthew Spencer
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: May 31st 2022
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Finished reading: June 20th 2023
Pages: 360

“Something the property manager had said had lodged in his brain: fish rots from the head down.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

WARNING: it’s unpopular opinion time again!!

I’ve been meaning to read more Aussie crime and it’s no secret that I have a weak spot for serial killer thrillers, so of course I couldn’t resist adding Black River to my TBR. The journalist angle sounded interesting as well, and I fully expected to have a great time reading this debut. Sadly, it wasn’t ment to be after all… And somehow I ended up struggling considerably with this story. I know that I’m in the minority, because most people do seem to love their time with Black River; this is me putting in my two cents just in case there is someone else out there who wonders if they were reading a completely different story than everyone else.

I still like the premise of Black River, with the serial killer angle and the doubt about the third murder being his work or that of a copycat. The journalist angle has potential as well, and especially since he is linked to the school in the past… Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of the execution at all. It almost felt like the plot was trying too hard, overcomplicating things and making it very hard to keep focused and truly follow everything that is going on. Add the fact that there are WAY too many characters, and I honestly struggled to keep them all apart and properly follow what was going on.

It’s not just the fact that there are way too many characters though, but they are also way underdeveloped and mostly felt like stereotypes. As a result, it was hard to keep them apart… The fact that the author kept switching between their first and last names to refer to them didn’t help either, and only increased that confusion. The lack of dept also ment that I couldn’t care less about what happened to them, and the way they talked and swearing was also off putting.

The pace in Black River was extremely slow, and as a result I had a really hard time to find the motivation to keep reading. Combine this with the fact that I somehow clashed horribly with the writing style and tone, and it’s basically a miracle I made it to the end at all. I do confess I only finished this book because I ended up skimreading quite a lot of it, and I kind of wish I had just DNFed it instead. Sadly this author definitely isn’t a good fit for me despite my love for serial killer thrillers. I also wonder why this is named the Rose Riley series, because she didn’t stand out as a character at all… But that might just have been me.

All in all it is no surprise when I say that I really struggled with Black River. Between the oversized cast, the overcomplicated plot, the lackluster character development, the unappealing writing and slow pace this debut unfortunately ended up being a miss for me.