Murder at Broken Ridge — David Menon

DESCRIPTION

Welcome to Broken Ridge, a town where everybody is carrying some kind of secret.

This story of an unsolved murder in rural New South Wales is a perfect piece of outback noir that will keep you guessing and then drop your jaw with a truly shocking twist at the end.

Just who did murder Danny Holdsworth's best friend Nigel Slater over thirty years ago when they were both teenagers who'd grown up together in the small NSW town of Broken Ridge? It's a shadow that's been hanging over the town ever since.

Now a highly esteemed television journalist Danny returns to Broken Ridge and is determined to finally find the answer to Nigel's still unsolved murder. His investigations bring him back into contact with Caroline who he was once engaged to but who's now very unhappily married to Danny's childhood nemesis, Tim Reynolds. But Tim has secret business difficulties that have led him into the clutches of a Melbourne ganglord and his Russian associates. They give him more trouble than he's ever known but he doesn't imagine just how fatal his association with them will prove to him and his family.

Caroline is determined to try and find what she and Danny once had when they were emotionally involved before he left town all those years ago. But Danny has already embarked on a secret affair that has trouble written all over it and yet he's driven by a passion that he just can't turn away from. And when Caroline finds out who the affair is with she's almost ready to commit murder herself.

Meanwhile, the investigation into Nigel's murder brings a surprise visit from Danny's estranged mother who has lived in the US since abandoning Danny when he was a child. She brings with her the darkest of secrets which not only identifies Nigel's killer finally but also delivers a devastating truth about Danny's own identity that sends him reeling.

It's a revelation that makes him wish he'd left well alone.