The Chalon Heads
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4.5 • 11 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Brock and Kolla have been called to a shop dealing in rare stamps on the assumption they'll be handling a simple case of theft. But a man from Brock's past, Chinese East End ex-villain Sammy Starling, comes to him for help when Starling's vivacious young wife is kidnapped . . .
When Sammy Starling, a former London gangster with a passion for collecting, discovers that his beautiful young wife is missing, he assumes old enemies in the police force are taking their revenge. Ten years ago Starling's evidence of police corruption put DI Marty Keller, an ambitious, clever young cop with everything to live for, behind bars. Now Keller is out. And getting even.
But as investigations into Eva Starling's disappearance proceed, it's DCI David Brock who is under suspicion of corruption. His team is disbanded and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla is reassigned to the Fraud Squad. Unsuccessfully trying to come to terms with Brock's disgrace, Kolla needs to find out why nothing in this case seems to be making sense.
Using the tenacity, ingenuity and intelligence Brock is relying on, Kolla links the pieces in this puzzle of kidnapping, murder and revenge, and finds answers that no one is expecting.
The Marx Sisters, Maitland's first novel, was shortlisted for the John Creasey Award for best first crime novel and his second, The Malcontenta, was joint winner of the inaugural Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel. All My Enemies followed in 1996 and The Chalon Heads is the fourth gripping case for the Scotland Yard team of DCI Brock and his assistant DS Kathy Kolla.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this riveting, if flawed, British police procedural, Maitland (The Malcontenta) serves up a plot so deviously complicated it's sometimes hard to follow. Scotland Yard's Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla and Chief Inspector Brock investigate the kidnapping of Eva, the wife of wealthy philatelist Sammy Starling, a specialist in stamps displaying the young Queen Victoria and called Chalon Heads. (The dust jacket, depicting a stamped envelope of Victorian vintage, is sure to draw stamp collectors.) Sammy, who was a key witness in a police scandal several years earlier, receives ransom notes with rare Chalon Head stamps glued on the pages and hence made worthless. The final ransom note demands a unique Canadian philatelic item, which is to be sold at auction. After Sammy buys and delivers it, he receives a grisly, if thematically fitting, present. The subsequent autopsy is not for the squeamish. Suspense builds as the fraud squad enters the case, while the author's psychological insights into his characters add further interest. The ending crowds together several long and surprisingly articulate confessions, one by a woman who had been incoherent only minutes before she tells all. Readers may wonder just who did what to whom. Although parts of the narrative read as though written at different times and stitched together with the seams showing, Maitland's intricate tale never fails to grip. 5-city author tour.FYI:Born in Scotland and raised in London, John Creasy Award nominee and Ned Kelly Prize winner Maitland now lives in Australia.
