Uniquely Australian Mystery: Read Our Review of Brunswick Street Blues by Sally Bothroyd

Brick Brown has problems: she hates her day job, and her beloved Uncle Baz has gone missing.

Although a bartender by trade, Brick Brown has finagled herself a job on the city council to investigate a complaint that threatens to close her uncle’s well-loved blues club in the heart of Melbourne.

Brick suspects something strange is going on, but when her amateur sleuthing uncovers the mayor’s dead body in a locked room, she’s dragged into the dangerous world of dodgy developers with the reluctant help of Mitch Mitchell, a prickly war correspondent turned investigative journalist.

Relying on her street smarts and an unlikely band of allies, Brick and Mitchell unearth corruption that runs deeper than just local government, and the stakes are higher than they banked on. And when Brick also discovers some terrifying information about her past, the stakes turn deadly…

Winner of the inaugural ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize, Brunswick Street Blues is an impressive new crime mystery from debut novelist Sally Bothroyd. Bothroyd grabs the reader from the opening pages – when the protagonist, Brick Brown, stumbles upon the Melbourne Mayor’s dead body in the archives storage of the Yarra City Council – and doesn’t let up until the final pages. The twists keep piling up in this fun and distinctly Australian mystery, perfect for readers of The Thursday Murder Club and Janet Evanovich.

The novel is set in Melbourne, and Bothroyd, who grew up in Victoria and lived in Melbourne during the 1990s, brings the seedy inner-city streets of Fitzroy to vivid life here. In this delightful read, Bothroyd draws us into a fascinating world of dinghy blues bars, AFL footballers, dirty property developers and corrupt politicians.

Brick herself makes for a compelling protagonist – she’s smart, savvy and more than capable of rising to whatever challenge Bothroyd throws her way. The rest of the cast is made up of some colourful and quirky characters that were each a joy to follow on the page.

Filled with witty dialogue, a page-turning mystery and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, Brunswick Street Blues is a cracking debut that takes readers on a wild romp through the streets of Melbourne. Let’s hope this is only the start of Brick Brown’s adventures.

Buy a copy of Brunswick Street Blues here.