Author Barry Maitland. Photo: Peter Stoop
CHELSEA MANSIONS
Barry Maitland
Allen & Unwin, A$24.99
Maitland's new book, Chelsea Mansions, begins promisingly. Two American tourists visiting London are walking back to their hotel one evening after attending the Chelsea Flower Show. Suddenly, from out of the crowd, someone pushes the man aside, grabs the woman and hurls her into the traffic, right in front of an oncoming bus. This bizarre and horrifying murder has its roots in a crime committed many decades before and, with her boss, Chief Inspector David Brock, taken seriously ill soon after the investigation begins, Inspector Kathy Kolla struggles to solve one of the most difficult cases she has ever faced.