Spider Trap

book_SpiderTrap_enlargeFirst published : 2006 Allen & Unwin, Australia

Skeletons are discovered in wasteland behind Cockpit Lane, a poor black area of inner South London, and DCI David Brock and DS Kathy Kolla of Scotland Yard’s Serious Crimes Branch are called in to investigate.

The discovery that the victims died during the Brixton riots, over twenty years before, leads Brock and Kolla on a dark and dangerous journey into the heart of the West Indian community in London. It’s a journey in which past and present come together in an intricate web of deception and intrigue as Brock encounters a formidable old antagonist, Spider Roach. In a desperate search to find a crucial piece of evidence, Brock and Kolla unwittingly set in train a series of events that erupt in a shocking, violent conclusion.

Australia has arguably one of the top five crime writers in the world, and you may well never have heard of him. It’s Barry Maitland, whose new novel, Spider Trap, is the ninth in a superb series of books featuring London detectives David Brock and Kathy Kolla. (The Australian)

With surprise twists and turns, there’s a palpable undercurrent of menace in this immensely satisfying read. In a word, absorbing. (Herald Sun, Australia)