The Verge Practice
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Following the murder of his young wife, Charles Verge, world famous architect and head of a very lucrative London practice, disappears without a trace. After four months of dead-end investigations, Chief Detective Inspector Brock and his team are called in to achieve the impossible: to find fresh leads and overlooked clues and to finally put an end to the much-discussed Verge mystery. Was this a crime of passion and has Verge escaped to Spain, or even Sydney, as the public sightings suggest? Or is Verge already dead, a victim of the murderer? From the suave world of international architecture to the backstreets of Barcelona, the only thing missing is Verge himself.
In their own often unorthodox style, Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla manage to unlock the secret that has perplexed and intrigued both the police investigation and the public imagination.
'Barry Maitland is a master of mysteries.' - Los Angeles Times Book Review
'More, please, Mr Maitland.' - The Washington Times
'Maitland does a masterly job keeping so many balls in the air while sustaining an atmosphere of genuine intrigue, suspense and, ultimately, dread. He is right up there with Ruth Rendell . . .' - Australian Book Review on The Chalon Heads
'Maitland gets better and better, and Brock and Kolla are an impressive team who deserve to become household names.' - Publishing News
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
It's hard to call Det. Sgt. Kathy Kolla and Chief Insp. Brock a team, since they work independently and don't often communicate, yet their sleuthing is smooth and efficient as they hunt down the killer of a prominent architect's wife in the latest in Maitland's sophisticated series (The Malcontenta, etc.). Charles Verge, owner of the London practice bearing his name, has suddenly gone missing, putting him under immediate suspicion of doing in his ambitious wife just before plans are unveiled for a controversial new prison. The police also focus on the activities of rival architect Sandy Clarke, until he too is found dead, an apparent suicide leaving a dubious "confession" on his computer screen. Kathy does most of the legwork in this intensive search, going first to the north of England and then to Barcelona where Charles may have been sighted, while Brock is back at headquarters in London directing an inquiry into the firm's shady finances. Maitland, himself an architect, provides vivid insight into the dog-eat-dog world of designing government buildings and also shows us the "nasty end of police business," in the modern forensics lab complete with high-tech gadgetry. Eventually, the pieces of the puzzle fit together in a grisly and unsettling resolution.
