Assigned to Murder: A Philippa Barnes Mystery

It was a monstrous fantasy - but then it all came true.As Philippa Barnes, a young Franz Josef glacier guide, is reeling from her parents’ death in a climbing accident, journalist Kirsten Browne is murdered near a mountain lake. Philippa and Kirsten’s brother Jack try and find out what she was investigating, while a diarist tries to make sense of a betrayal that has poisoned many lives. Philippa’s search will take her from the secretive people of the lake to the home of high court judge, Loraine Latimer, a woman with an uneasy relationship with her family. Philippa discovers that Kirsten’s murder is linked to a decades-old mystery, but not in time to prevent another tragedy.

Trish McCormack is an archivist by day and a crime writer by night. Now living in Wellington, she previously worked as a journalist in Hokitika. She has also worked in the New Zealand national parks where she sets her novels. Assigned to Murder is her first Philippa Barnes mystery. She has written two others in the series, Glacier Murder and Cold Hard Murder.