Cold Dark Matter: A Morgan O'Brien Mystery

By Alex Brett

Book Overview

Short-listed for the 2006 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel

A Canadian astronomer commits suicide on a desolate mountain peak in Hawaii, and Morgan O'Brien is sent to the observatory to find his missing data. But it seems she's not the only one who needs those notebooks, and her competitor is willing to kill to get them. But why? To find the answer, Morgan travels from the peak of Mauna Kea deep into Ottawa's past, where the darkness of the Cold War still obscures the truth.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550024949
• ISBN13: 9781550024944
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Riveting Novel Exposes a Truly Dark Secret

Hawaii, astronomy, and the Canadian government are three things most Canadians know a little something about. What they and other mystery readers might not know can be found in the pages of Alex Brett's engrossing novel, Cold Dark Matter. Ottawa-based Morgan O'Brien, investigator for the National Council for Science and Technology, is asked by her colleague and friend, Duncan, to retrieve the research diaries of an astronomer who apparently committed suicide while working in Hawaii. Morgan's questions about the suicide and diaries' content lead to her into a labyrinth of secrets, betrayals, and cover-ups stretching back to the Cold War era. Among the many appealing aspects of this book are vivid descriptions of a Hawaii I thought I knew, insight into the competitive world of astronomers, and revelation about a horrific and unfortunately true event in Canadian government history. You'll have to read the book to learn what the government's shameful Fruit Machine was because if I told you, you'd never believe me. Read the book. It's a great story.

Great Mystery

I love these mysterys set in the world of science. I hope there are more coming.

A Must Read!

This is a unique book that manages to both entertain and educate. Brett has created an interesting cast of characters and a vivid sense of setting (both in Hawaii and the Ottawa area). The pace is good, and just varied enough to keep the reader on his/her toes. The story has some great twists and turns, all leading up to a satisfying resolution.

I was hooked from Chapter One.....

COLD DARK MATTERAlex Brett made an auspicious appearance two years ago on the Canadian mystery-writing scene with her first Morgan O'Brien Mystery, Dead Water Creek, a book that Margaret Cannon of The Globe and Mail called "an excellent debut novel". And it was. Now she has returned with the second novel in the series, Cold Dark Matter. And once more, Brett's grasp of complex scientific issues, and her ability to explain them to the lay reader, comes to the fore. In Dead Water Creek the subject was salmon research, and the complex and interesting people who carry it out. In Cold Dark Matter, as the title and the cover illustration suggest, the scientific issue under the microscope (or telescope) is astronomy. And Brett does tell the reader a lot about astronomy, the technology involved, and the people who pursue that discipline. But, as in Dead Water Creek, the real story is about the lives of the people involved. And there is also a fascinating and insightful description and discussion of another, equally important, scientific issue that for a time captured the interest of the Canadian federal government, an interest lodged in the near-paranoia that gripped Canada and the United States both in the Cold War era. The world knows only too well about the horrors of the political and social witch hunts in the United States in what is usually referred to as the "McCarthy Era". I think many readers in Canada will be surprised to learn that Canada had its own "witch hunt", in which careers and lives were destroyed. It was, in essence, a shameful example of the perversion of science, supposedly in the interests of national security, and it was funded by the federal government. But a mystery novel will not fly on the wings of scientific and social issues alone. A good story, believable characters, crisp dialogue, and crackling action are required, and Alex Brett delivers all of that in Cold Dark Matter. I was hooked from the first chapter. The story is fast-paced and exciting, and once more Morgan O'Brien emerges as an engaging character with equally engaging friends - and foes. Five stars to Cold Dark Matter.