AustLit

'Rozanna Lilley didn’t recognise the description. Intellectually, sure. But as it applied to her? No way. Lilley was in the office of her therapist, seven or eight years ago. It was their first session. To begin, Lilley tentatively offered a disclosure about her childhood. Tentatively, because she was unsure of its relevance. “Okay, I’m going to tell you a few things now in case it’s important.”'  (Introduction)

'In July last year, the Referendum Council met with the prime minister. It was a historic moment, and many participants were optimistic that, finally, meaningful constitutional recognition was imminent. They had met to discuss the independent council’s report, which recommended an Indigenous “voice” to the parliament – an advisory body that would be constitutionally enshrined, but whose functionality would be prescribed by legislation. This was meaningful recognition, they argued – not some artful words in the preamble but “a form of ‘living’ recognition”. The “voice” would not be a third chamber of parliament. It could not pass bills, nor veto them. It would respect parliamentary sovereignty. It was, the council argued, a modest reform – and one they were confident the Australian people would endorse at a referendum.'  (Introduction)

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. (Scribe Publications)