Brunswick Street Blues

Paperback, 368 pages

English language

Published March 2, 2022 by Harper Collins.

ISBN:: 978-1-8672-1601-8

(1 review)

Winner of the inaugural ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize. The twists keep piling up in this fun and distinctively Australian debut mystery, perfect for readers of The Thursday Murder Club and Janet Evanovich.

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, …

Winner of the inaugural ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize. The twists keep piling up in this fun and distinctively Australian debut mystery, perfect for readers of The Thursday Murder Club and Janet Evanovich.

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...

PRAISE:

'Not since Jack Irish has Melbourne's Fitzroy been so funny.' - The Chronicle

'Impressive debut' -Australian Women's Weekly

'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.' - Better Reading

'It's up to Brick and her local pals to save her streets - and ours - from harm. An excellent and entertaining debut.' Fiona Hardy, Readings Monthly

'A cracker of a debut novel! ... This thoroughly entertaining story had me from the first page to the last.' Sarah Barrie, author of Unforgiven

1 edition

urbaer reviewed Brunswick Street Blues by Sally Bothroyd

An enjoyable romp through the City of Yarra

4 stars

There's a lot going on in this version of the City of Yarra in 2007 (a local government area of Melbourne, Australia). The Melbourne Blues scene, football, freeway planning, shady developers, the Melbourne Cup, adoption and local politics all get thrown in to the mix when our main character Brick Brown (part time bartended, part time council worker) enters the archives room in the council building where she works to find the mayor dead with his pants down.

Her Uncle Baz (who's really more of a dad) has gone missing and with the help of the ex-war correspondent Mitch Mitchell and her friends she needs to unravel the weird web of politics to find him.

It sounds heavy, but it is a light romp. Some of the threads which end up being a bit loose at the end get resolved in an "oh by the way" but it was good …

There's a lot going on in this version of the City of Yarra in 2007 (a local government area of Melbourne, Australia). The Melbourne Blues scene, football, freeway planning, shady developers, the Melbourne Cup, adoption and local politics all get thrown in to the mix when our main character Brick Brown (part time bartended, part time council worker) enters the archives room in the council building where she works to find the mayor dead with his pants down.

Her Uncle Baz (who's really more of a dad) has gone missing and with the help of the ex-war correspondent Mitch Mitchell and her friends she needs to unravel the weird web of politics to find him.

It sounds heavy, but it is a light romp. Some of the threads which end up being a bit loose at the end get resolved in an "oh by the way" but it was good all the same.