This novel follows the story of an Australian teenager Heidi, who has come home to Perth after the death of her brother, Felix. Heidi is also struggling with her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and best friend. The only person who seems to truly have her back is Patrick – the younger brother of Felix’s wife – someone she’d only met once before at their wedding years earlier. Although the police have deduced Felix’s death to be suicide, Patrick convinces Heidi that this is not true.
The story alternates between ‘then’, when the murder is being investigated and, ‘now’, where the protagonist is stuck in an elevator telling the story to someone else, creating a sense of suspense through narrative concealment. They know the outcome and culprit, but you don’t.
Kate Emery combines teen drama, mystery and all sorts of moral dilemmas masterfully, without ever crossing into entirely unrealistic premises. By the time I did learn the answers to my questions I had suspected everyone twice but was still left grappling with the truth.
A Murder is Going Down is a truly hooking book. I couldn’t put it down once I began, with plot twists I never saw coming. I highly recommend this book.
Reviewed by Freya, Year 10, Yarra Valley Grammar School, Ringwood Vic
Age Guide 12+
Read our review of My Family and Other Suspects
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Emery lives in Perth and works as a senior reporter for the West Australian. She is the author of The Not So Chosen One, which was shortlisted for the Text Prize and the Aurealis Awards, and My Family and Other Suspects, which won the 2025 Indie Book Award for YA and the John Marsden Book of the Year for Older Children at the 2025 ABIA awards.
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