Customer Reviews

No Trace: A Brock and Kolla Mystery (Brock and Kolla Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barry Maitland's "No Trace" is a haunting and powerful police procedural featuring Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla. Brock and Kolla are members of a Major Enquiry Team looking into the disappearance of three young girls: Aimee Prentice, Lee Hammond, and most recently, Tracey Rudd, the six-year-old daughter of Gabriel Rudd, a controversial contemporary artist. Rudd lives in Northcote Square, a London neighborhood known for its cutting-edge artists and art dealers.

Maitland does a masterful job of juggling an enormous cast of colorful characters. Betty Zielinski is an apparently disturbed woman who lives near Gabriel Rudd. Although she claims that she has pertinent information that could help the police, no one is willing to pay any heed to "Batty Betty," as she is known in the square. Len and Bev Nolan, Tracey's grandparents, despise Rudd, whom they blame for the suicide of his wife, Jane, who was also their daughter. Fergus Tait, Gabe's art dealer, is an opportunist who encourages Gabe to immediately transform his grief into a new work of art, as he did after his wife's death.

Weeks pass without any leads. Suddenly, a series of homicides raises the stakes for the investigators. It soon becomes apparent that a serial killer is loose in Northcote Square. Could these murders be related to the abduction of the three little girls? Brock has his hands full dealing with these high-profile cases, especially since his superiors are breathing down his neck and pressuring him for results. Maitland slowly builds up tension as Brock, Kathy, Detective Inspector Bren Gurney, and the rest of the team desperately look for leads.

"No Trace" is one of the most dark and complex thrillers of the year. It has crisp dialogue, sharp descriptive writing, excellent depiction of police procedure, and deliciously sardonic humor. Maitland touches on a number of compelling themes and develops them beautifully: the selfishness of great artists, the political jockeying for power among law enforcement agencies, and the price that dedicated detectives pay for their devotion to duty. The author skillfully demonstrates that some apparently normal human beings are so cruel and insensitive to the pain and suffering of others that they commit horrific acts with little or no remorse. The plot becomes more and more intricate until it culminates in a breathtakingly clever and surprising, if not entirely realistic, finale. Still, Maitland pulls it off, and "No Trace" is itself a minor work of art.

...And that's mostly a good thing, I think, but also one that builds to a tale so intricate, intense and unnerving that I found I needed to take frequent breaks from all the convolution and let the latest twists and turns of the plot's progression sink in for awhile before going back into the fray.

But let me digress for a moment to say I'm Maitland fan dating back to the mid '90s, but there came a time--probably when the author was moving back to England from Australia and I was still shopping at brick and mortar bookstores--when the supply of new Maitland mysteries seemed to have dried up and eventually I stopped looking. It was only when a request came up for new mystery writer recommendations in an Amazon discussion group recently that I re-remembered Maitland, went on the prowl here, discovered he'd written several new Brock-Kolla mysteries while I wasn't paying attention and that Amazon had them. Which is how I now find myself playing catch-up, starting with this one seven long years after it was published.

This 8th in the Brock-Kolla detective series opens just after the abduction of the daughter of a well-known modern artist--the third girl-child in east London to have gone missing in recent weeks. The setting is an off-the-beaten-track neighborhood dominated by a combination gallery, restaurant and collection of artists' studios called "The Pie Factory." The cast of characters ranges from the merely quirky to the decidedly weird to the chillingly creepy and, before it's all over and the fate of the missing child is revealed, many will be suspected and several will end up dead, all of them under highly unusual circumstances. Brock's Major Enquiry Team really has their work cut out for them on this one and if you're the kind of mystery reader who likes to challenge yourself to figure out whodunit before the cops do, you've got quite a challenge ahead of you as well. But I suspect you'll find it worth it.

Maitland strives for more than death, plot and mayhem and makes a statement about the absurdity of pop culture and its paper heroes by writing a complete and satisfying mystery involving two likeable and believable heroes, an abundance of scoundrels, some grisly deaths and an ending bordering on the surreal.

Oh dearie me. Apparently there is nothing a contemporary artist won't do to get a head. Literally. I mean the head.

This utterly convoluted story of murder and woe among conceptual -- read "malignant" -- artistes depends heavily upon the notion that their horrible antics are at least likely, which I am afraid they are not.

Oh, they'll kill, all right. They may get drunk and toss you out a window, brutally divorce you, inject you with pure heroin, feed you to ducks or get a critic to ritually disembowel you.

They are most UNLIKELY, however, to engage in serial slaughter,then hang gruesome photos of the victims transposed to translucent hangings relevant to obscure writings, throughout a weirdo but popular gallery. Even the title, "No Trace," refers to the disappearance of a child named "Tracy" and her callow father's immediately construction of an exhibition designed to take advantage of her disappearance, no matter what we are later told.

Cheezits, let's have some decent plot development and true-to-life characters. An author can ascribe ANYTHING to the pathetically disturbed and psychopathically personality disordered; to murdering child molesters; hostile, batty neighbors and squirrely old coots.

It is in describing evil behavior in the so-called "normals" that is the gift of an author of truly excellent thrillers. In this case, the perpetual horribleness of the perpetrators is SO unlikely as to be -- sorry -- hilarious.

This was my first experience with the author and I must say I wasnt as thrilled as I thought I would be. The story started off promising, only to disappoint frankly. The story continued and was very slow and drawn out in my opinion. The concept and story were great however, the delievery was a little off. This made the story hard to enjoy. The ending was rather plain as well. If this is your first title by the author I encourage you to read another title than come back to this one. I hope this helps! Happy reading.

EC

This novel in addition to being implausible is too convoluted. I slogged through it but wouldn't want to do it again.

The book was not bad, but the plot was a bit too contrived. It wasn't satisfactorily tied up in the end, either. I forced myself to finish it.

This was a superb, twisted, engaging thriller that held me from page 1, as I'm always on the lookout for new mysteries. They provide the sorbet in the feast of my reading banquet. I plan on going back and reading the entire series, much as I did with Peter Robinson.

In London someone abducts the six years old daughter of artist Gabriel Rudd from their home leaving NO TRACE at all of a struggle. Little Tracey is the apparent third victim of the kidnapper; of the first two girls, one is dead and on is barely alive.

Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla head the investigation into the serial kidnapper case, but emphasize the importance of concentrating on rescuing the child. They are both appalled by Gabriel's reaction. Known for his work the "Dead Puppies" that gruesomely depicts the suicide of his wife five years ago, the abduction inspires him to begin a project depicting Tracey's kidnapping as the center of his upcoming exhibition of his works. He becomes a suspect with the motive being to recapture his moment of fame while he obviously had opportunity and the no struggle hints of someone the girl knows, but the two cops also look at other individuals in this closed bohemian artistic society.

The strength of this superb British police procedural resides with the support cast as Barry Maitland vividly describes the artist community, who to the two cops seem offbeat especially the victim's father. Readers will be fascinated in a macabre way with Rudd's reactions as he sees his daughter's danger as an exploitation opportunity, which has the audience wondering if he is that unfeeling, the culprit, or the ultimate capitalist.

Harriet Klausner

As a lover of mysteries, British ones in particular, I can honestly
say that this is one of the cleverest and best-written ones that I have
ever come across. Combining the art world with wonderful character
studies, Maitland has created a true tour de force.