The Malcontenta
A Brock and Kolla Mystery
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Following Barry Maitland's first mystery, The Marx Sisters, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla and Detective Chief Inspector David Brock of Scotland Yard return in The Malcontenta, which won Australia's Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, when it was first published.
Kathy is on temporary assignment away from London with the Family and Juvenile Crime division. Desperate to escape the second-rate duties assigned to her, she jumps at the chance to investigate the unnatural death of a young physiotherapist at an exclusive local naturopathic spa. Very soon it becomes clear that the apparent suicide is fraught with complications. Is a cover-up taking place to protect the reputations of wealthy clients? Or was the cause of death really suicide? Taken off the case before she has the chance to discover the truth, Kathy turns to Brock for help. But when Brock poses as a client, they both learn that spas are not always good for your health—especially if you’re a target for murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Malcontenta, an 18th-century mansion near Rochester in Kent, forms the backdrop for another superior mystery from Creasy Award nominee Maitland (The Marx Sisters). Det. Sergeant Kathy Kolla goes to Stanhope Naturopathic Clinic, the spa that now occupies the Malcontenta, to investigate the reported suicide by hanging of Greek physiotherapist Alex Petrou. When both the spa's director, Dr. Stephen Beamish-Newell, and Kathy's boss, DI Ric Tanner, prove uncooperative if not hostile, Kathy seeks help from her old partner, DCI David Brock. Posing as a desk-bound civil servant, Brock books in at the spa, where he uncovers a profitable secret enterprise behind the naturopathy. In addition, he learns that Petrou was into sex, drugs and blackmail. Brock's questions lead to a second killing, clearly murder this time, but his lack of discipline gets him kicked off the case. Kathy and Brock find they must pursue the truth in Rome, Orvieto, Vicenza and ultimately the original site for the Malcontenta, a villa located south of Venice. A Scot raised in London who teaches architecture at an Australian university, Maitland is particularly good at describing old buildings and the drab English weather. This is only the second of five Kathy and Brock mysteries to be published in the U.S. With any luck the rest of this literate series will soon become available here.
