Published by Scribe UK

Available in ebook and paperback (September 2018)

304 pages

Trace: who killed Maria James by Rachael Brown, a gripping true crime book that blows the dust off of a 40-years-cold Australian murder case, revealing shocking new evidence.

Based on the international #1 podcast of 2017, Trace begins as a re-examination of a disturbing 1980 murder of a young single mother. Brown discovers crucial evidence that the original case missed — that Maria James’s disabled son was being abused by their priest, and on the day of her murder she had intended to confront him about it. The podcast and book has helped to reopen the case in August, following in the footsteps of the hugely successful I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Making a Murder, and Serial.

|   About the Book   |

The riveting inside story of a journalist’s cold-case investigation of a shocking murder

Every cop has a case that dug its claws in and would not let go. For veteran detective Ron Iddles, it was his very first homicide case — the 1980 murder of single mother Maria James in the back of her Melbourne bookshop. He never managed to solve it, and it still grates like hell.

Maria’s two sons, Mark and Adam, have lived in a holding pattern longer than Rachael Brown has been alive. When the investigative journalist learned that a crucial witness’s evidence had never seen daylight, the case would start to consume her — just as it had the detective nearly four decades prior — so she asked for his blessing, and that of the James brothers, to review Maria’s case.

In her exhaustive and exhausting 16-month investigation for the ABC podcast Trace, Rachael reviewed initial suspects, found one of her own, and uncovered devastating revelations about a forensic bungle and possible conspiracies that have inspired the coroner to consider holding a new inquest.

This is a mesmerising account, as Rachael traces back through her investigation — one that blew the dust off a 38-year-old cold case, gave a voice to the forgotten and the abused, and could have serious implications for two of the state’s most powerful institutions.

My thanks to Scribe UK for the blog tour invitation and for the opportunity to host a giveaway on the last day of the tour. I can offer one paperback copy  (open to UK/Ireland) – for entry details please see the Gleam box below.

|   Author Bio   |

Rachael Brown is a broadcast journalist. In 2002, after graduating from RMIT, she began her career with the ABC, where she has held several postings, including Europe correspondent from 2010 to 2013. In 2008, she won her first Walkley Award, for Best Radio Current Affairs Report, for her investigation into the Victorian Medical Practitioners Board whose negligence contributed to the sexual assaults of a dozen women. Rachael was the creator, investigator and host of the ABC’s first true-crime podcast, Trace, which won the 2017 Walkley Award for Innovation. The podcast also won two 2017 Quill Awards: for Innovation, and for Best Podcast. Rachael lives in Melbourne, Victoria.

Website   |   Twitter  |   Amazon UK   |   Goodreads    

 ****  GIVEAWAY ****

*Terms and Conditions – On behalf of the publisher, I’m delighted to offer one paperback copy of Trace. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to entrants aged 18 or over in the UK/Ireland. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winner’s information. This will passed to the publisher for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data I hold. My Reading Corner is not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize. The giveaway will end on 22 September 2018.

Good luck!

One Paperback copy of Trace by Rachael Brown (open to UK/Ireland)