Blackwater (The Jonny Murphy Files Book Three) by Sarah Sultoon

 

Blackwater (The Jonny Murphy Files Book Three) by Sarah Sultoon.

Published 4th December 2025 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

London, Christmas 1999. The world is on edge. With the new millennium just days away, fears of the Millennium Bug are spiralling – warnings of computer failures, market crashes, even global catastrophe. But fifty miles east, on the frozen Blackwater Island, a different kind of mystery unfolds. A child's body is discovered on the bracken, untouched by footprints, with no sign of how he died. And no one has come forward to claim him.

At the International Tribune, reporter Jonny Murphy senses something is off. Police are appealing for relatives, not suspects. An anonymous call led officers to the scene, but no one knows who made it. While the world fixates on a digital apocalypse, Jonny sees the real disaster unfolding closer to home. With just twenty-hour hours before the century turns, he heads to Blackwater – driven by curiosity, desperation, and the sting of rejection from his colleague Paloma.

But Blackwater has secrets buried deep in the frozen ground. More victims – some dead, others still paying for past sins. And when Paloma catches up to him, they stumble onto something far bigger than either of them imagined. Something that could change everything. The millennium is coming. The clock is ticking. Can Jonny stop it? Should he?

And what if Y2K wasn't a hoax, but a warning...?

***********

London, December 1999. Journalist Jonny Murphy is now a full-time member of staff at the International Tribune, working alongside Paloma, the photographer who helped him break the story about the resurgence of the death flights in Argentina.

Jonny is frustrated with stories centred on escalating fears about the Millennium Bug. His mood has also been unsettled by failing the course he needed to allow him to take on more exciting projects at the paper (something he felt unnecessary given his experience in the field), and his uncertainty about Paloma's feelings towards him.

When the body of a child is found on Blackwater Island, Essex, with no indication of how it got there, Jonny's boss gives him a twenty-four-hour-pass away from Millennium Bug coverage to see if he can find out anything about the mystery. While the world is fixated on the upcoming digital apocalypse, Jonny discovers that Blackwater Island is the centre of a dangerous cover up that could see something far worse than computer failure unleashed at the strike of midnight on the eve of the new millennium...

Jonny Murphy is back in his third gripping adventure, this time on home-grown turf in the wilds of Essex. Fed up with his lot at the paper, where a constant round of coverage about the Millennium Bug is sending him crazy, Jonny is excited to be offered the chance to see what he can find out about the death of a small child that no one else seems to be concerned about, despite the unusual circumstances that surround the event.

With just twenty-four hours before he must be back in London to cover the Millennium Eve celebrations, Jonny has a hunch that there is a much bigger story here than meets the eye, and he is right. With Paloma on side, and the help of disaffected DI Gillian Peters, who has single-handedly been losing the battle against crime in her marshy neck of the woods for years, the threads of the story take a sinister turn. Otherworldly tales of ghostly apparitions protecting Blackwater Island abound, stemming from Viking folklore, and the locals give out a Reform Party by way of The Wicker Man vibe, which all adds to the eerie atmosphere. 

A slow-burn mystery develops into fast-paced action tale, in Sultoon's characteristic style, with lashings of 'bait-and-switch' twists, hinging on sins of the past and a conspiracy of silence that draws on some very uncomfortable history about horribly real cloak-and-dagger government operations. I loved how Sultoon makes this fit so well with the story elements around the paranoia that gripped the world around the impact of the Millennium Bug - which I remember well. It was wonderful to see Jonny and Paloma working together once again too.

This was fantastic read, that kept me firmly on the edge of my seat. The plot is devilishly clever, with just the right amount of mystery, action, and emotion - and it is packed with the kind of thought-provoking themes I have come to expect from an author of Sultoon's calibre. 

Blackwater is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by choosing to buy direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer, whose work as an international news executive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe's migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs.

As passionate about fiction as nonfiction, she recently completed a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, adding to an undergraduate language degree in French and Spanish, and Masters of Philosophy in History, Film and Television.

When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if...