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Black River, Rose Riley Book 1 by Matthew Spencer Book Review and Analysis

Blog and Video Description: In this episode of the Mattacritic, I will be reviewing Black River, Rose Riley Book 1 by Matthew Spencer which comes in several formats such as Kindle, Audible, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, and Audio CD. I will go over several topics in this episode. The book will start with the murder of Marguerite Dunlop who is connected to the school since her father works there. She goes there as well. This is a string of killings that is thought to be connected to the BMK, which is an acronym for Blue Moon Killer. If Blue Moon sounds familiar, Blue Moon is a beer that one sticks with an orange in when one drinks it. Unbelievably Blue Moon is made by Miller. How do I know this? I have known this since I was in Milwaukee, WI and visited the Miller’s Brewery and I was served it when I was at Miller Park for the Milwaukee Brewers. I will give you my rating at the end of this review. I hope this episode will inspire you to read, watch and learn.


YouTube Video Description: In this episode of the Mattacritic, I will be reviewing Black River, Rose Riley Book 1 by Matthew Spencer which comes in several formats such as Kindle, Audible, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, and Audio CD. I will go over several topics in this episode. The book will start with the murder of Marguerite Dunlop who is connected to the school since her father works there. She goes there as well. This is a string of killings that is thought to be connected to the BMK, which is an acronym for Blue Moon Killer. If Blue Moon sounds familiar, Blue Moon is a beer that one sticks with an orange in when one drinks it. Unbelievably Blue Moon is made by Miller. How do I know this? I have known this since I was in Milwaukee, WI and visited the Miller’s Brewery and I was served it when I was at Miller Park for the Milwaukee Brewers. I will give you my rating at the end of this review. I hope this episode will inspire you to read, watch and learn.



Hello everyone, welcome to the Mattacritic. This is Matthew Hemenway. In this episode of the Mattacritic, I will be reviewing Black River, Rose Riley Book 1 by Matthew Spencer which comes in several formats such as Kindle, Audible, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, and Audio CD. I will go over several topics in this episode. The book will start with the murder of Marguerite Dunlop who is connected to the school since her father works there. She goes there as well. This is a string of killings that is thought to be connected to the BMK, which is an acronym for Blue Moon Killer. If Blue Moon sounds familiar, Blue Moon is a beer that one sticks with an orange in when one drinks it. Unbelievably Blue Moon is made by Miller. How do I know this? I have known this since I was in Milwaukee, WI and visited the Miller’s Brewery and I was served it when I was at Miller Park for the Milwaukee Brewers. I will give you my rating at the end of this review. I hope this episode will inspire you to read, watch and learn.

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As was mentioned before, this book deals with the BMK killer who has been on a killing spree. Rose Riley who is a Detective Sergeant in this story will be tasked in finding out who killed Marguerite Dunlop and finding out who the killer is. She has help from her boss Chief Inspector Steve O’Neill, Pryia Patel, Annie Tran, and Dr. Farquhar who is a psychologist who works for the police department. She also gets help from Adam Bowman who has a connection to the school since he went there when he was a child. Adam Bowman works as a journalist for the National that is a newspaper that has gone digital. This is what I can tell from reading and listening to the book. This story takes place in Sydney, Australia. The river is the key to these murders.

There are several people who make sense as suspects. First, the reader will think it to be Headmaster Preston. This makes sense as Preston is shady, and he gets on the defensive when Rose talks to him as well as her boss Chief Inspector Steve O’Neill. This makes sense when Pryia Patel and Adam Bowman interviewed Preston and he got freaked out when the drone footage was released over the airways.

Preston is involved in a brothel meaning he has been involved in sexual relationships that were outside the confines of marriage. There is a sleazy politician he is involved with, and his names is Hugh Bishop. Hugh Bishop tries to interfere with the investigation as he and Preston are afraid that certain things will come out like their connection to the Mob and this brothel. It will ruin both of their careers as it should. Who wants a headmaster of a school that is involved in a brothel? Who is to say that Preston or Hugh Bishop could not be involved with girls under 18? This would be scary, and this happens in real life all the time. There are stories that you can read in the news or find if you look them up on google or any reliable search engine.

The other suspect is Craig Spratt. Craig makes sense as he manages the garden shed and has access to the tools one would expect to find. There are plenty of tools to find for him to kill Marguerite if he is the killer. The BMK killer likes to cover his or her victims with a plastic bag over their head after he or she kills them. Craig Spratt saw Preston leaving which makes him a credible witness as well as a suspect to the BMK killings.

The other suspect is Tom Green. Tom Green is the son of Sarah and Scott Green. Tom oversaw taking care of Marguerite Dunlop’s dog Tatters. Tatters will be later found dead in this story, and he was later buried in the ground. Tom will say to Rose Riley and to Chief Inspector Steve O’Neil that he was sorry that her dog Tatters died. Both Rose Riley and Chief Inspector Steve O’Neil asked Tom Green, do dogs dig their own graves? The answer is obvious, no dogs do not bury their own graves. In fact, no one can bury himself or herself if that individual is dead. I am implying that a human cannot bury himself or herself. Tom is an obvious suspect in the fact that when CSI went through the dumpster; they found Tom’s shoe with Marguerite Dunlop’s blood. It will be believed by the police that Tom Green was making this look like the BMK killer, but this will be proven to be wrong. There is a twisted person behind these killings and this person will not be as obvious one might think it will be.

The police were going to rule out the river, but Adam Bowman tells Rose Riley that you do not want to do that. The river could be the key to this according to Adam Bowman. Adam Bowman is smart and can smell out when things smell or feel out of place. This is what makes him a good reporter. He is willing to work with the police to make sure his facts are accurate and is willing to help them when he can. Adam Bowman will be proven right that the river is the key. This makes sense as this book is called Black River.

The other suspect one might think of is Sarah Green. Sarah Green knew Adam Bowman’s mother had an affair with Headmaster Preston. This means that she is implying to Rose Riley and the police that he could be BMK killer. This is too convenient. When a suspect is too convenient, in story or real life, this is not always the case. It cannot be just convenience that makes someone that actual perpetrator, it is motive, and opportunity. The reason Sarah implies this is that Adam Bowman’s brother died when he saw Preston and Adam Bowman’s mother in the bushes having sex and he fell to his death because of this. Adam is not aware that his mother had an extramarital affair with Preston. This does not give him motive to be the killer of Marguerit Dunlop to kill her and frame Preston with it. As Sarah Green claims, Preston gets away with everything and this would be frustrating to those that know that this guy is a horrible person. This gives Sarah Green motive since she knew Adam Bowman’s mother had an extramarital affair with Preston and feels responsible for not doing something about it. She could have done this, but this does not necessarily make her the killer of Marguerite Dunlop.

The other suspect one would look at as well is Scott Green, who is Tom Green’s father and Sarah Green’s husband. He makes sense as Tom Green is afraid of him. When Tom Green was being arrested by the police, Tom Green told the police he did not want to go with his father. The police will appoint another adult to be with him. It is understood that Scott must have been abusive to Tom and Sarah Green was wearing clothes that covered her neck. Usually when a person wears clothes that cover his or her neck; this means that individual is an abusive relationship. They are usually covering their injuries by that individual. Scott has tendencies one would expect to have. When a person is a psychopath, the people who they are supposed to love are afraid of them. Scott Green’s mother was a nun who was raped and probably hated Scott because he reminded her of her rapist. She got on her son Scott for wetting the bed. This probably caused him to do more out of the guilt that he would be scolded by her.

Psychopaths like to play games as Rose Riley got a note from the killer saying, let’s play. This means he is targeting Rose. Priya Patel was later hurt by the killer, and this will make the reader think that this individual wants to play a game, and the participants in this game must figure out the clues before it is too late.

As not to be revealed, nothing more will be revealed here. It does bring the viewer to the climax of the story and set up another book in this series.

I will give you, my rating. I give Black River, Rose Riley Book 1, a 10 out of 10. It was fun and helps the reader to understand the complexities of these killings and the other horrible people in this story that are involved in other horrible things. Not all these horrible people are killers, but they are involved with the mob and a brothel. What happens to these people in the end is justice and you will not feel sorry for them. What rating do you give this book? Please leave your answer in the comment section below. Thank you.

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