Blood River is the first stand-alone novel by Australian crime novelist, screenwriter and film and television producer, Tony Cavanaugh. In November, 1999, a mere seven months into her career on the Homicide Squad, Detective Constable Lara Ocean finds herself sharing the lead in a serial killer case. Over a matter of days, three middle-aged, wealthy men have been found brutally murdered in or near Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens. They were, but for a strip of skin, decapitated in a ritualistic manner by someone the press soon dubs The Slayer.

Lara may be the youngest on the Squad, but she is teamed with William Waterson, the oldest and most experienced Detective Inspector on the force. A number of features common to each victim send Lara searching out certain figures from her wild teenage years. Other possible suspects are questioned, and Lara even checks the recent movements of a childhood acquaintance.

But when a tip has them questioning seventeen-year-old Jen White, Lara recalls her own rebellious adolescence: drugs, booze, tatts, sex and dangerous behaviour. Frustrated with the lack of progress, her superiors make an unexpected move, one Lara inwardly condemns, but it produces a result and all of Brisbane breathes easier with a cold-blooded killer serving a life sentence behind bars.

Twenty years on, and Lara is in a very different position when she learns that The Slayer has, against the Attorney General’s instructions, been released on parole. While some have proclaimed wrongful imprisonment for twenty years, the widows of the victims vociferously protest the release. Will the killing begin again?

Cavanaugh easily conveys the heat and humidity of the rainy Brisbane summer, as well as that unique Queensland attitude displayed by police and politicians. The Y2K hysteria, the threatening floods and later droughts, and Brisbane itself, all are expertly rendered. Cavanaugh’s plot takes some unexpected turns and keeps the reader guessing right up to the final chapters: even the most astute reader is likely to be surprised at the reveal. There are a few red herrings and some minor elements remain unresolved by the dramatic climax.

Lara is an interesting character: half-Chinese and under maternal pressure to marry, but determined to advance her career as a policewoman of integrity. In fact, most of the strong characters in this novel are female. The narrative does jump about quite a bit in both time and person, which may be a source of confusion, so the reader has to pay careful attention to context. One would hope that the poor formatting and missing punctuation throughout this uncorrected proof has been rectified in the final version, although it does not unduly affect the reading experience. Outstanding Aussie crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Hachette Australia.