SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 NED KELLY AWARDS, BEST TRUE CRIME CATEGORY

In 2004, the body of a young Perth woman was found on the grounds of a primary school. Her name was Rebecca Ryle. The killing would mystify investigators, lawyers, and psychologists – and profoundly rearrange the life of the victim's family.

It would also involve the author's family, because his brother knew the man charged with the murder. For years, the two had circled each other suspiciously, in a world of violence, drugs, and rotten aspirations.

A Murder Without Motive is a police procedural, a meditation on suffering, and an exploration of how the different parts of the justice system make sense of the senseless. It is also a unique memoir: a mapping of the suburbs that the author grew up in, and a revelation of the dangerous underbelly of adolescent ennui.

PRAISE FOR MARTIN MCKENZIE-MURRAY

'Penetrating and insightful ... one of the most cogent and persuasive aspects of A Murder Without Motive is [McKenzie-Murray's] candid and forensic analysis of the youth culture of the northern-suburbs badlands and the "swell of casual violence and unripe, immature masculinity" he believed silently festered in these young people.' The West Australian

'I can't think of a better, more literate and perceptive reporter.' ABC Radio National