Dark matter

Ngaio Marsh-style whodunnit set among academia attached to the Mt John Observatory.

This debut thriller from Akaroa-based academic Marie Connolly is an old-school whodunnit set in the Mackenzie Country, the kind of mystery our own queen of crime Ngaio Marsh used to write.

Wellington-based criminal psychologist Nellie Prayle is called in to assist the police on what will be her first homicide case after a murder occurs at the University of Canterbury's Mt John Observatory, Aotearoa's largest professional research observatory and one of the best locations to examine the southern skies.

"Scandals at the university were not uncommon. But murders, it had to be said, were unusual."

Prayle happens to be on a break from academia and is in Christchurch, staying in her late mother's home - and finding the pull of the South Island increasingly strong.