Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Criminal psychologist Nellie Prayle loves solving murders. The more complicated, the better. But when a professor of astronomy is found dead at Tekapo’s Mt John Observatory during its internationally-attended 50th anniversary conference celebrations and Detective Jack Simmons calls on Nellie to help with the police investigation, she soon realises that this is not your typical murder – and nor are these your usual suspects.
As Nellie and Jack venture into the Dark Sky Reserve in Aotearoa New Zealand’s beautiful Mackenzie Country, they uncover a universe of rivalries, infidelities and emotional turmoil that pushes people to the edge. International intrigue and a tangle of motives unfold against a glittering backdrop of bright stars in this gripping tale of crime and passion, and as Nellie knows only too well, nothing in the world of academia is straightforward.
When the Director of the Mt John Observatory Professor Evelyn Major is murdered, just as an international conference is kicking off at the observatory overlooking Lake Tekapo, there are a lot of academics in the vicinity, with a lot of secrets, making the pool of potential suspects surprisingly wide. Enter Criminal Psychologist Nellie Prayle who loves solving complicated murders, and finds plenty to be going on with in this web of rivalry, infidelity and emotional turmoil. One thing is for sure, this investigation does not lack for motives, nor does it lack intrigue.
A modern day locked room style mystery in the style of Ngaio Marsh (this is from New Zealand after all), or Agatha Christie, DARK SKY is a really engaging procedural style novel that is heavily sprinkled with potential clues and reveals for the astute reader to be going on with.
There's even a nice twist on the typical Golden Age finale, which sees Nellie going "off the record" with the murderer, working through the motivations and reasons for the killer's actions - not quite the grand reveal of whodunnit, but a most welcome whydunnit final phase to the investigation.
An investigation that relies a lot on conversations, asides and overheard hints from a large cast of people, some of which does get, unavoidably and perfectly understandably, a little on the repetitive side. To even that out there are some nicely done interactions, particularly between Nellie and members of both the investigation team and colleagues within the large cast, set against a most unusual locked room backdrop, which provided the opportunity for some lovely descriptive elements.
All in all, DARK SKY does have a bit of setup going on, which hints that Nellie Prayle may be back, with Detective Jack Simmons one hopes, because there's nothing like a novel like this one to make you hope for a follow up.
Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction.
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