First published : 2003 Allen & Unwin, Australia; 2004 Arcade, USA
Following the murder of his young wife, Charles Verge, world famous London architect, disappears without a trace. After four months of dead-end investigations, Detective Chief 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, DCI David Brock and DS Kathy Kolla manage to unlock the secret that has perplexed and intrigued both the police investigation and the public imagination.
With a superb ear for dialogue, and characters that grow in strength and substance in each book, Maitland’s series is a firm favourite with my readers of British police procedurals, and in this case more than any others previously, we enter the minds and lives of his protagonists. This is a rich and compelling mystery that will hook new readers, while its subplot will keep established fans glued to the page. (AB&P, Australia) .his densest novel yet, .imbues the most banal scene with the sharpest kind of circumstantial reality. (The Australian) Maitland burrows so deeply into the lives of Charles Verge, his associates and the investigators that you’d think he was channeling P.D.James. (Kirkus reviews, USA) .a compelling police procedural. (Dallas Morning News, USA)