Silvermeadow: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries) - Softcover

Maitland, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611458269 ISBN 13: 9781611458268

Publisher: Arcade Publishing, 2013

Synopsis

Two Cases. One location. The first case, a girl gone missing, seems a decidedly local affair. The second, the return of a violent criminal who had fled the country, instantly attracts the interest of Scotland Yard and Detective Inspector David Brock.

When he learns that his longtime nemesis, the amphetamine-juiced killer and thief known as “Upper” North, may have surfaced, Brock assembles his team and summons Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla. Their manhunt centers on Silvermeadow, the supermall on the outskirts of London where North was spotted. Brock and Kolla camouflage their search for North by taking on the case of the missing girl—a mall employee. They lie in wait, hoping to catch North before he can strike with a new crime. Yet what should they make of rumors of other young girls disappearing from Silvermeadow? Is there a predator on the loose within the apparent safety of a carefully orchestrated aura of order and control? Very quickly, the mall itself—and its colorful cast of characters—becomes key to the dual investigations. This is Maitland at his cunning best.

About this title

Review

Barry Maitland's cast of hard-working, bad-tempered cops, and in particular Brock, the wise older man, and Kolla, the smart young woman, are always a reliable team; Silvermeadow puts them on display at their best. Brock has unfinished business with North, a ruthless bank robber, whom someone spots in Silvermeadow, a vast shopping mall; Brock and Kolla move in on a murder hunt partly to have a pretext to hang around and wait for North to make his move. Someone killed a shop assistant and stuffed her body into a garbage compactor--and perhaps she was not the first, but rather just the first of the rootless young women who have disappeared to be found after her death ... Maitland has always been good at locations that are both crime scenes and countries of the mind and here we get not just the shining public face of Silvermeadow, but its access tunnels and guilty secrets. We also get a sense of what it is to run a place like that; the beleaguered director of the mall, her security chief, the brilliant cripple in the computer surveillance room--these are solid characters about whom we come to care as much as we do for the detectives we already know. --Roz Kaveney

Review

"Barry Maitland is a master of mysteries."

"Superb . . . Maitland just keeps getting better and better."

"Silvermeadow is first-rate . . . compelling . . . fascinating."

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1611458269
• ISBN 13: 9781611458268
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356