The Verge Practice
A Brock and Kolla Mystery
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- USD 10.99
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- USD 10.99
Publisher Description
In The Verge Practice, Kathy Kolla and David Brock, Scotland Yard’s superlative detective duo, take on a puzzling case in the posh world of big-name international architecture, and it has them chasing red herrings and hopping fences from London to Barcelona.
Charles Verge, a powerful, cutting-edge architect, has disappeared into the blue, leaving behind his firm; his beloved—and pregnant—daughter; and his young and very dead wife. The case is stalled, and, after months of fruitless searching leaves the authorities desperate to save face, Detective Chief Inspector Brock and Detective Sergeant Kolla are called in.
All of London is abuzz with questions about the high-profile case, which will send Kolla and Brock to some less-than-scenic locales in Barcelona, and back to their own stomping ground—where suspicion of internal corruption comes much closer to home than they would like. As the investigation uncovers a dizzying web of possible suspects—including an ex-con gardener, a sinister doctor, and the missing Verge himself—it will reveal more than one crack in the shiny windows of the Verge practice’s sleek façade.
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.
