Customer Reviews

Dark Mirror: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries)

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In Barry Maitland's "Dark Mirror," DI Kathy Kolla, newly promoted and eager to make her mark, has a very messy murder case on her hands that has elements of academic rivalry, infidelity, and blackmail. Kolla and her superior, DCI David Brock, are drawn into a web of intrigue that leads them down one false trail after another. No one's word can be taken at face value, and there is little forensic evidence pointing to an obvious suspect. The first victim is Marion Summers, a twenty-six year old PhD student at London University, whose specialty is the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. She has conducted what she considers to be groundbreaking and shocking research that she believes will change the way academia looks at Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his followers. However, would someone do away with her in order to keep her work from becoming public? Kolla interviews Marion's acquaintances, her sleazy family, and her tutor. Unfortunately, since Marion guarded her privacy fiercely, DI Kolla has a difficult time uncovering the confidential aspects of Marion's life that she took great pains to hide.

Those who have admired Kolla and Brock over the years will be delighted to be back in their company. Kathy is an aggressive and dedicated detective who regularly puts her job before her personal life. Brock is trying to make a go of a long-distant relationship with his girlfriend, Suzanne, but there never seems to be enough time for them to get together as often as they would like. Brock and Kolla make a formidable team, and they are ably assisted by an eager young Detective Constable named Philippa (Pip) Gallagher. Maitland expertly depicts the long and frustrating hours that it takes to interview and re-interview witnesses, suspects, and anyone who has information to share. It is always challenging to separate fact from fiction, and at times, it seems to Kathy that everyone lies for one reason or another. When she meets an attractive young man on a weekend trip, Kathy has a rare opportunity to relax and enjoy some time away from the pressures of work.

Unfortunately, during the final portion of "Dark Mirror," Maitland loses control of his material. There are too many red herrings, too many long-winded explanations, and too many unbelievable plot developments that are designed to surprise the reader. Although Kolla and Brock eventually put the pieces together, the solution to this intricate puzzle is depressing, overly complicated, and ridiculously far-fetched. Fewer twists and turns would have made for a more believable, coherent, and entertaining mystery.

I've read all of Barry Maitland's Brock and Kathy British police proceduals and have found them all to be well-written and well-researched with good character deliniations. This book, his latest, just doesn't seem quite up to speed. It's a good read, but is slightly too long and could have used some judicious editing. The front story, which takes place today with Brock and Kathy Kolla investigating two poisonings with arsenic, is too overshadowed by the back story, about the pre-Raphaelites and their activities. The plot is almost too much of a "stretch" to be convincing, as are some of the secondary characters.

If you're a Brock/Kolla fan, you'll enjoy the book because he continues the character time line of his main characters and that's always important in a "series" book.

If you haven't read Maitland, I'd start on one of his earlier books.

The latest Brock and Kolla procedural provides a mystifying case involving arsenic poisoning, a relative rarity in the crimes of the day. Kathy Kolla, newly promoted to inspector, is presented with a challenging, if not enigmatic, crime. Marion Summers, a young, brilliant PhD student collapses in the British Library after having just eaten lunch in St. James Park. The pathologist intuitively believes that it is a case of arsenic poisoning [later confirmed] and murder.

Unfortunately, as the investigation proceeds, it soon appears that the victim committed suicide. But Kathy is obsessed and continues to look into Marion's background. Then the latter's friend, another student, is found poisoned, and the case takes yet another turn.

The plot revolves around Marion's research into the Victorian pre-Raphaelite period, in which arsenic was widely available and used for a variety of purposes [unlike today, when it is rare and largely unobtainable]. There are a number of suspects, and the reader is kept on the brink of discovery until the real culprit is unveiled. Maitland is a master in creating suspense, and smoothly moving the story ahead without revealing clues to the reader as he or she twists and turns until a most unexpected conclusion. Recommended.

Dark Mirror, the most recent of Barry Maitland's Brock and Kolla mysteries, begins with Marion Summers collapsing in the Reading Room at the London Library. She dies a short while later, spurring an investigation headed by Detective Inspector Kathy Kolla. When the autopsy reveals that Marion was the victim of arsenic poisoning, Kathy is off and running along with a cast of supporting characters that include family members, fellow university students, university professors, a librarian, a library patron, a forensic pathologist, and a host of others--including Kathy's boss, Detective Chief Inspector David Brock.

The storyline intrigued me with many unexpected twists and turns, as did the forensics. Although the secondary characters were well-crafted, I personally would have preferred fewer of them--especially since I suspected whodunit before the end of the story.

Maitland's dialogue is crisp and his plotting and writing skills leave you wanting to know what happens next.

Another excellent puzzler that plays with modern British London police procedural but references previous centuries, regimes, and social behavior. He had me going, didn't waste space on fulminating about several "right [...]" characters of various classes, and then solved the mystery in a completely plausible--in fact, much more logical than my suspicious were leading me to--manner. And what's nice is that it all depends on personality, and very credible personality at that. There is nothing wasted here. This is an extremely clever story and as usual touches on people's deepest needs while also moving forward to a boffo climax.

In the London Library, Ph.D. candidate Marion Summers researches nineteenth century Pre-Raphaelite artists when she suddenly crumples and drops dead. Since Marion suffered from diabetes, the assumption by all who knew her is the disease caused her death. Recently promoted Detectives Inspector Kathy Kolla leads the official investigation, her first time in charge of a case, though she also expects the medical examiner will determine the cause of death to be related to diabetes.

However, instead the medical examiner finds arsenic inside Summers' body. Kolla is in charge of the homicide investigation. The cop learns Summers was focusing on the use of arsenic and other poisons by the Pre-Raphaelites. Her theories were upsetting the academic circles as being too way-out. However, that should not be a motive for murder. With Detective Chief Inspector Brock's mentoring, Kolla looks into the personal non-academia life of the victim finding several people who might want to kill her and who had the opportunity to poison her, using ironically what Summers was studying as the means which remains difficult to ascertain.

This is an exciting fresh British police procedural as DI Kolla heads her first investigation as the lead with DCI Brock supporting her. The story line is fast-paced and filled with plausible twists that enhance the inquiry. Fans of the series will enjoy this super Kolla-Brock collaboration.

Harriet Klausner

This 10th in the Brock and Kolla London-based police procedural series was published in the US in September of this year. Kathy Kolla has been promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector and is just beginning to run her own cases. Her first, the sudden death in the London Library of a beautiful graduate student, is quickly and shockingly found to be a case of arsenic poisoning. The young woman, Marion Summers, is a mysterious figure; nobody even seems to know where she has been living for the past three months. As Kolla's investigation progresses, she goes from having few leads and no suspects to finding almost too many possible motives and suspects.

The unusual method of the murder seemingly parallels the subject of Marion's research: the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Marion's thesis that painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti murdered his wife Elizabeth Siddal with arsenic, which was then commonly used in paints and decorative arts. (Strange coincidence; this is the second book in a week I read that included Elizabeth Siddal.) Finding out how arsenic can be obtained in this day and age is just one of the challenges facing DI Kolla, DCI Brock and their team in this case.

The plot is full of twists and turns and more than one red herring. As we race to the finish, the story becomes a little melodramatic, but still a pleasure to read.

The Kolla and Brock series always includes some elements of the personal stories of the two leads, but that is generally a fairly minor part of the plot, and character developments in prior books aren't necessary to an appreciation of any of the titles. In other words, I don't think it's important whether you read this series in order.