All My Enemies: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries) [Paperback]

Barry Maitland (Author)

Book Description

Series: Brock and Kolla Mysteries | Publication Date: September 15, 2009

In one of the finest and most pivotal books in this critically acclaimed series, never before published in the U.S., D.S. Kathy Kolla reports to New Scotland Yard and to D.C.I. David Brock's Serious Crime Division. 
Just before Kolla is to start her new job, a young woman is found viscously murdered in a leafy, well-heeled suburb, and the grotesque details of the slaughter appear to be well-rehearsed, even theatrical.  Assigned to the case, Kolla's only improbable lead draws her to a local amateur drama group. Once in their orbit, she is lured into a piece of theatre over which, increasingly, she has little control. In All My Enemies, Brock and Kolla find themselves in a tangled web of deceptions in a case wherein a corpus of plays becomes a template for murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First published in the U.K. in 1996, the engrossing third entry in Maitland's series to feature David Brock and Kathy Kolla (Spider Trap, etc.) is at last available in the U.S. The day before Kathy begins her new job in Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Branch, she gets a call from her superior, Chief Inspector Brock, that her detective services are needed sooner than expected. Angela Hannaford, a pleasant young woman who taught Sunday school, has been brutally stabbed to death in her parents' South London home, her face mutilated. Kathy, who becomes the head of the investigating team, traces clues to other recent murders of women who all eerily resemble one another, and soon discovers that a theater troupe may be the critical link in the Hannaford case. But as Kathy moves closer to finding the perpetrator, she also inches closer to danger. Maitland does a fine job developing complex, interesting characters within a sinister, well-paced plot. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Barry Maitland is the author of several previous novels featuring D.C.I David Brock and Det. Sgt. Kathy Kolla, most recently Spider Trap.  Born in Scotland and raised in London, Maitland lives in Australia.  He's been a finalist for the Barry Award, the John Creasey Award, and is a winner of the Ned Kelley Award.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st pr of this edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312384009
• ISBN-13: 978-0312384005
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #455,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "My nemesis. Goddess of retribution and vengeance.", October 17, 2009

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All My Enemies: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries) (Paperback)

Mixing the professional with the personal, Maitland offers a protagonist in All My Enemies who is relatable and interesting, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla stepping into a new job at Scotland Yard in Detective Chief Inspector David Brock's Serious Crime Division. Nothing about this thriller, or Kolla's new position, is predictable, the squad meeting in a basement office and bar named "The Bride of Denmark", Brock's crack team dealing with the brutal murder of a young woman after her return from the theater. As Kathy delves into the recent activities of the victim, she finds a promising connection to the theater and an eccentric, if not malevolent individual who surreptitiously photographs young women as they travel to the city by train.

It is the protagonist's individuality and her approach to her work that propels the story, humanizing the Kolla's profession and the quirky cast of characters, from performance artists to unwilling witnesses to a man who knows more than he is telling, DS Kolla driven as much by intuition and personal assessment as data. Kolla follows direction, but isn't afraid to work outside the conventional areas of investigation, pursuing more obscure leads in pursuit of the critical link between the murders and the killer. In fact, it is soon evident that other murders can be linked by time and circumstance to this same killer, a series of unsolved disappearances and murders. While the other investigators tackle the most obvious issues, Kathy makes a more obscure connection, one that will be pivotal to catching a very devious serial killer.

To get a better sense of the killer's mind set and the environment from which he draws his inspiration, Kathy joins a small local theater group. There she discovers quite another world, vibrant, emotional and artistically passionate, as well as a series of plays that might hold the key to the murders, all linked somehow through a love of the stage and common physical attributes of the hapless victims. From a camera-toting voyeur to the outrageously eccentric director of the play, from Kolla's elderly runaway married aunt to the conniving mind of a psychopath, Maitland builds a compelling, twisted plot that is shocking in its simplicity, serial murder viewed through the lens of the theater, each garish corpse a grim reminder of a killer's demented thirst for vengeance. Luan Gaines/2009.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super British police procedural, September 19, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All My Enemies: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries) (Paperback)

New Scotland Yard Serious Crime Branch Detective Chief Inspector David Brock asks his new hire Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla if she can start earlier than negotiated as he has a hot homicide to investigate and could use her help. She agrees. Sunday school teacher Angela Hannaford was brutally murdered in her parents' South London suburban home; the victim's face was badly mutilated by a knife.

Kathy leads the inquiry under DCI Brock's mentoring. This is not the first grotesque murder as other women have been victims of what increasingly looks like a serial killer. However, the Hanneford homicide has the first potential break though in the murder cases with a tie to an amateur theater troupe that leads to Brock and Kolla wondering whether the ugliness of the crime was not spontaneous out of control passion, but a rehearsed performance. As she digs deeper, DS Kolla places herself in danger from a culprit watching her every move closely.

This is reprint of Kolla's first case working under the supervision of Brock. The story line is a terrific and fabulous police procedural starting with the opening chapter "Madonna without a Face" and continues throughout until the climax with its nod to Equus. Fans of the series will enjoy the first official Brock-Kolla collaboration as ALL MY ENEMIES affirms why this is one of the better long running British police procedurals.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, August 10, 2011

By 

JoeV "Reader" (Arlington Hts, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: All My Enemies: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries) (Paperback)

This is the third adventure of Detective Kathy Kolla and her mentor/superior David Brock - both of Scotland Yard. The novel was originally published in 1996 but for whatever reason was just somewhat recently made available here in the U.S. (There are now 10 books in this very good British police procedural series.)

The story opens with Kathy returning to London and joining Brock's Serious Crime team - Her first case a gruesome murder of a young woman with few clues and the search for the culprit begins. Maitland does an excellent job in this book - and the others - in blending the criminal investigation with a well developed cast of characters, all the while spinning a very good mystery. The only flaw in these books, particularly the earlier installments, is Kathy's behavior/decisions - she at times turns into a B-movie actress who needs to be rescued. It's a nit, but aggravating, particularly after 200+ pages of Ms. Kolla acting intelligently. The good news is that Kathy stays out of serious trouble in All My Enemies.

If you like your British police procedurals the Kathy/Brock series will not disappoint.