Interview: Marie Connolly talks about Icefall

Marie Connolly has been an academic for over thirty years, working in university and government settings. An expert in child protection systems, she began her academic career at the University of Canterbury and moved to Australia in 2010 to take up a professorial position at the University of Melbourne. Retiring in 2019, she returned to Aotearoa and now writes more eclectically, publishing children’s books, film review blogs and various community arts books. In 2024, Quentin Wilson Publishing released her first crime novel, Dark Sky, which was a finalist in the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards for first novel. Icefall is her second novel in the Nellie Prayle series. Marie talks to NZ Booklovers about her new novel.

Tell us a little about Icefall.

Icefall is the sequel to my first crime novel, Dark Sky, which introduced Nellie Prayle, an academic clinical psychologist at Victoria University, who also works as a consultant with the Christchurch police. Dark Sky was set at the Mount John Observatory, Tekapo, where a professor of astronomy is murdered in one of the telescope domes. This time, we head further south when a body emerges from the receding Hooker Glacier in the Southern Alps, which becomes a key investigation site. Nellie gets to attend the body recovery operation and soon finds herself tested, not only by the environment, but also by the complex web of lies and secrets that surround the grim findings as the action shifts northward toward the scene of a second death in Christchurch. 

What inspired you to write this book?

The setting always comes first for me and I really enjoy engaging with the darker aspects of stunning places. So that’s where the inspiration for my books originates. Alpine environments create wonderful settings for crime novels, combining isolation, dangerous landscapes, extreme weather, all of which have the potential to create fear, psychological tension and distress. They are also unforgiving environments in which the landscape itself can become an antagonist, creating physical danger, camouflaging evidence and thwarting investigation. So, these things considered, I think it’s fair to say I am a setting-inspired writer.

What research was involved?

Researching Icefall inevitably took me down to Aoraki Mt Cook, where I experienced the grandeur of the mountains and spoke with search and rescue staff to get a feel for what happens when a body emerges from a glacier. Landing on the Tasman Glacier by helicopter was a thrill and, although I was very aware of the precarious nature of our glaciers in Aotearoa, there is nothing quite like taking a boat across the Tasman Lake and seeing the recession of the glacier first-hand. Glaciologist Heather Purdie from the University of Canterbury shared her important work with me, and I read widely about the mountains and the people who climb them. As the story developed, I realised how much more I needed to know and the research process takes on a life of its own.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

Once I have determined the setting and have a detailed plot synopsis, I start writing. The plot provides the parameters of the story which means I avoid deviating too far from my plan, unless something doesn’t work - maybe the villainous character isn’t as interesting as they need to be, and another character becomes a stronger contestant. But overall, I like to follow the main elements of the synopsis and become increasingly obsessive once I start writing the chapters, working from page one until I get to the end.

If a soundtrack were made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

No particular song, but something chilly, windswept and atmospheric might work.

What did you enjoy the most about writing this novel?

Having the opportunity to meet glaciologists, mountaineers and all the other professionals who shared their expertise and experiences with me, including the police. Finding the spectacular cover image for Icefall was also a thrill, a marvellous photograph of a glacial crevasse by West Coast photographer, Petr Hlavacek.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

We had a celebratory dinner when I first sent the manuscript off to my publisher, Quentin Wilson, thinking it was done. But then it kept coming back…needing a change here, a revision there... creating the need for further celebratory dinners as the manuscript was passed back and forth!

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

The standard of writing and publishing in Aotearoa is impressively high, so it is impossible to choose just one favourite. I loved Northbound by Naomi Arnold. A few months ago we had friends to dinner and I read the first chapter aloud to them, Bluff to Riverton, and they were completely riveted by the engaging narrative – just as I was when I first read it. Robert Vennell’s The Meaning of Trees is an absolute treat. As well as being beautifully presented, it provides fascinating facts about our native trees and plants. Who knew that the roots of the humble cabbage tree provided some of the earliest native plant spirits, brewed and sold illicitly? It tasted awful but was nevertheless heavily consumed at the Bluff Hotel. I really enjoyed Jeffrey Buchanan’s fictional work, The Birds Began to Sing, a powerful mystery that poignantly captures the thrills, dangers and fraught emotions experienced by a gay teenager in 1960s New Plymouth. And my favourite crime novel so far this year is Liam McIlvanney’s The Good Father, full of suspense and foreboding, with an unexpected structure that departs from the familiar.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

I have chosen a fabulous setting for the next Nellie Prayle mystery. The plot synopsis has been written and I have a whole new set of experts to connect with. 

Quentin Wilson Publishing