Chelsea Mansions

Brock & Kolla #11

by Barry Maitland

When Nancy Haynes, an elderly American tourist, is brutally murdered in a seemingly senseless attack after visiting the Chelsea Flower Show, DI Kathy Kolla suspects there is more to the case than first appears. When another occupant of the palatial Chelsea Mansions is murdered hot on the heels of the first - but this time a Russian oligarch - everybody wants to get involved.

Is it a Litvinenko-style KGB assassination? The spooks muscling in certainly think so. Are the murders linked? Or is Nancy's death just the result of mistaken identity? Kathy is determined to dig deeper, but comes up against walls of silence. If she persists, does she risk her career - and possibly more? DCI Brock, meanwhile, faces the fight of his life as his past comes back to haunt him.

A crime long buried, a deadly African virus, and some of the most resourceful criminals Brock and Kolla have ever faced, conspire to make this Maitland's best mystery yet.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, British Literature, Procedural, Detective, London

434 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Barry Maitland is the author of the acclaimed Brock and Kolla series of crime mystery novels, which are set in London, where Barry grew up after his family moved there.

His books have been described as whydunits as much as whodunits, concerned with the devious histories and motivations of their characters. Barry's background in architecture drew him to the structured character of the mystery novel, and his books are notable for their ingenious plots as well as for their atmospheric settings, each in a different intriguing corner of London.

Barry studied architecture at Cambridge University, and went on to work as an architect in the UK, then took a PhD in urban design at the University of Sheffield, where he also taught and wrote a number of books on architecture and urban design. In 1984 he moved to Australia to head the architecture school at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, and held that position until 2000. He now writes fiction full time, and lives in the Hunter Valley, Australia.

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Haynes and her long-time friend Emerson had arrived from the US and were spending the day at the Chelsea Flower Show. Giving in to tiredness, and unable to find a cab they strolled the short distance back to the B&B they’d booked into. But tragedy struck before they reached their destination and while Emerson was injured, his dear friend Nancy was killed. And it seemed that it was murder…

DCI Brock and DI Kathy Kolla were shocked by the brutality of the murder and vowed to Emerson and Nancy’s family back in the US that they would find her killer. But within a matter of days another murder occurred in the same vicinity – this one an important Russian official. Brock and Kathy wondered if the two were connected – but the difference in the two people was vast. Nancy was an elderly tourist with little money; the Russian extremely wealthy and well-known.

The investigation was deeply complex with many avenues to pursue. It also seemed to Kathy that there could be corruption within the higher ranks – but should she continue with her line of investigation? And what was happening with Brock? There was danger from all angles; and not just from the criminals who had no intention of being caught. They would stop at nothing…

Chelsea Mansions is the 11th in the Brock & Kolla series by Aussie author Barry Maitland and I haven’t read any of the others in the series. I hoped it wouldn’t matter; it didn’t! It is a gripping mystery with angles in every direction, which all came together nicely in the end. I’ll definitely be reading more in this series. Highly recommended.

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

So it turns out this is number eleven in a series and I never knew. Now I have to go back and read the other ten. It was apparent while I was reading it that the main characters had a history and that being familiar with their back story would make the book even better. I really enjoyed it anyway. It is really a quite involved and intriguing police procedural and it proceeds quite calmly to an interesting and satisfying finale. A very enjoyable read and another new series for me to follow up.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spinning top book,plenty of twists and turns.

[audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This badly fails the Sexy Lamp Test, with detective Kathy Kolla just existing to be told how to run an investigation, how not to run an investigation, how to do research, how not to do research, and how to carry the can for and by all the male detectives, as well as in some cases, the male witnesses.

Kathy’s the only female character in the book who isn’t dead and has speaking lines, with the borderline exception of Shaka Gibbons, the book’s only Black character. Shaka appears twice and then is mysteriously allowed to fuck off to a Caribbean island just after her husband’s been murdered. In case it’s unclear, Shaka’s not Caribbean; the author takes pains to tell us she’s “African”, at which point I re-read the surname this author had given her, and my eyebrows shot up over my head and out into the middle of the road. The book is from 2010.

There’s a surprising amount of plot going on in the book, and it does trundle onward despite the lead detective being felled by a mysterious poison for the first half, causing Kathy to tell ridiculous lies on his behalf (these are never explained or revisited in the second half of the book), and run afoul of both Scotland Yard and MI5 (see “plot”, “amount of”). All this despite Kathy having the decision-making capabilities of pot roast.

I hated it, a lot, and hereby release it to the four winds (in the form of the local little free library).



ETA: adding one star for the villain having been Nigel Farage.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Chelsea Mansions, Barry Maitland’s 11th — and possibly best — novel in the Kathy Kolla-David Brock series, a 70-year-old American tourist, Nancy Haynes, and a millionaire Russian expatriate, Mikhail Moszynski, are murdered within days of one another on the same block. (Moszynski owned a building, and Haynes was staying at the hotel next door.) Coincidence? Brock and Kathy don’t think so. But what could a Boston matron and a probably crooked Russian oligarch have in common? And why are MI5 and MI6 so interested in the case? Kathy gets an assist from an unusually helpful Canadian professor of historical linguistics named John Greenslade. Is he everything he appears?

The unscrupulous, corrupt MP Nigel Hadden-Vane, last seen in Spider Trap, returns with a newly burnished knighthood and plenty to hide in Moszynski’s death. Faced with Hadden-Vane’s interference, the media glare and Brock’s bout with the flu, solving these murders will be anything but easy.

Chelsea Mansions contains as many twists as a labyrinth and a big surprise — and big change — for Brock and Kathy. The novel kept me reading late into the night. You don’t want to miss this one.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

With any long term series, it's not surprising to see an author rejigging the relationships just a little, bringing in new perspectives or adjusting the expectations. CHELSEA MANSIONS is the ninth Brock and Kolla book from Barry Maitland, and in the last book there were hints that there is a little viewpoint modification going on. It's always particularly interesting to watch how various authors move their long-term characters in and out of the limelight, particularly when you have an inherent seniority built in, as you have in a police pairing. Maitland seems be carefully repositioning Kathy Kolla - pulling her more to the centre and he's doing it cleverly. Brock isn't sidelined, more ... shall we say ... distracted. And in CHELSEA MANSIONS he's extremely distracted. In fact a sudden and very dramatic health crisis means he's completely distracted by the real prospect that he may not survive.

Kolla is under pressure, not just because she's worried about Brock, but also because there's something very odd going on with her current investigation. The reason why somebody would actually pick up and throw an elderly American tourist under a bus in Chelsea is completely elusive. The connection between the brutal death of Nancy Haynes and that of a Russian oligarch living in the same building as the hotel that Nancy and her companion are staying in equally elusive. As is the reason that Nancy was so insistent about staying at this particular, quirky and not particularly upmarket hotel in the first place. To say nothing of the young Canadian man hanging around the same hotel.

One of the quirks of Maitland's books is the settings that he uses for the main component of the action in his books. In this case, this small square, with it's row of houses - part of which is the hotel, the rest of which has been progressively turned into a massive townhouse by our Russian victim Mikhail Moszynski. Not just a setting, this area because an intricate part of the plot itself as is often the way. As is also often the way Kolla's investigation is characterised by her dogged determination. Brock's part in the investigation is more thoughtful, cerebral, intuitive. Along the way there's some nice touches of the personal, and there's a bit of professional skullduggery just to make everyone's lives more complicated than they need to be.

Whilst it's undoubtedly partially that feeling of getting back in touch with old friends that always makes the arrival of a new Brock and Kolla book a satisfying experience, in the last few entries in this series, there's that sense of rejigging, just a gentle little jostling of positions to add a little spark. But at the end of the day, the best part about CHELSEA MANSIONS is that it IS a new Brock & Kolla novel, and it's a very good entry in which is really an extremely solid and keenly anticipated series.

[Kirsti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kirkus Reviews calls Barry Maitland "perhaps the most underrated writer currently working in the whodunit field," and I say right on. This novel has everything: a grizzled old detective with a jaundiced view of human nature, a slightly less grizzled younger detective with romantic troubles, plus Russian oligarchs, a mystery disease, the Chelsea Flower Show, and a skull in a suitcase. The mystery itself is so complex that Maitland needs several chapters to unpack all the whys and wherefores even after he reveals who did it. Not at all realistic--for instance, the characters treat transatlantic flights as if they are no more expensive or challenging than catching a crosstown bus--but I don't read mysteries for realism.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well to do American tourist is murdered at a flower show, and our detectives get on the case, and mope around.

I can see why people like this series, but I suspect I should have started with the first one.

[Harry Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do guys who were born and raised in Montreal really say "Fancy a cup of tea?"

Maybe they do. I wouldn't know. It just seems a very English thing to say, from a guy who grew up in Quebec. But maybe I'm wrong.

2.5 stars for this, because it was well-structured but also sort of inert. There was no momentum, little urgency, and not much at stake. It's one of those mysteries where everything anyone says--and everything anyone reveals as part of their personal history--turns out to be part of the solution to the mystery.

Which is fine. As a craft issue, it's an admirable way to create a mystery, but without truly engaging characterization or a sense of momentum, it feels very rote. I realize I'm jumping into a long-running series, but it was hard to feel much interest in the characters' dilemmas.

Did I mention that everything tied into the final mystery? Well, one thing didn't. One of the two stars of the series catches the Marburg virus and goes into the hospital for much of the book. There's no real reason to do this except to leave the junior partner, a woman, in charge of the investigation for a while. And of course she makes an error that gets her whole unit disbanded.

Meh. I wasn't feeling it.

Oh! I forgot to mention that there's a whole lot of talk about some old cases involving a deadly criminal by the name "Spider Roach."

Now, maybe that is the greatest villain since Prof. Moriarity, but nothing about "Spider Roach" sounds promising to me.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two disparate murders tie together in unexpected ways - made more clear by close reading of the epilogue & intro. A nice connection is made to Spider Trap.

[Michael Martz · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you crack open a Brock & Kolla mystery by Barry Maitland, you pretty much know what you're getting- a tightly plotted, well-executed procedural with a little bit of a tired formula (older lead male detective, young female 'understudy', sort of a father/daughter relationship), well-written and rather leisurely paced with very little sex or cursing. 'Chelsea Mansions' fits that profile. It's the 11th in the series and, even though I knew what I was getting, I still enjoyed it quite a lot.

Chelsea Mansions is the name for an odd collection of structures in London that had been bought by a Russian oligarch and converted into a single opulent structure for his family. One of the owners of the original mansions, though, hadn't sold out and was running a Bed & Breakfast business in his property. An older American woman who was staying at the B&B while attending the nearby Flower Show with a companion is murdered in a heinous attack and Brock's team is called in to investigate. The killer, who'd basically picked up the old woman and chucked her in front of a moving bus, had not only managed to elude capture but apparently was also prepared to hide his face from London's ubiquitous camera systems. A short time thereafter, as Brock and Kolla's processing of the crime scene and interviews are in process, the oligarch who owns the Chelsea Mansions is murdered in his garden. Are his murder and that of the woman staying in the B&B on the grounds connected? Was the oligarch murdered by the Russian secret service for some reason? Should the British MI5/MI6 groups be involved or for political purposes should the murders just be handled like 'normal'? These are big questions that need to be addressed, but Brock is taken seriously ill. Kolla gets assigned to lead the investigation once the higher ups have made their decision to de-politicize it for the time being. In the meantime, another B&B visitor makes Kolla's acquaintance and provides valuable assistance.

The characters of Brock and Kolla are well established if you've read any of the previous novels in the series. The other folks in Chelsea Mansions are caricatures of a sort. There are the B&B proprietors (older, he's ex-Armed Forces, she's his adoring wife), the young Canadian man staying with them who's a sensitive academic type, the super-rich oligarch and his airhead model wife, the gay B&B owners in Boston, the politicians... You know the type, so you kind of know them. The investigation goes through fits and starts but Kolla and the team uses state of the art techniques to finally identify, they think, the killer but he ends up dead as well. Something big is obviously going on.

One thing Maitland always does is handle the procedural aspects of cases like this the way I'd expect them to go in real life. There are no 'aha' moments where somebody pulls an idea out of thin air and suddenly everything falls into place. The investigators take a step by step approach, cover all the bases, and let the facts speak for themselves. Which works to a point, but understanding motive is extremely important, and that's where complexity is ratcheted up in Chelsea Mansions.

Once the killer is identified, the higher ups are ecstatic that the murders weren't 'political', but Brock isn't satisfied once he returns from his near-death experience and the case takes a number of abrupt turns at the end. One other thing I enjoy about Maitland's writing is that he always closes off questions that arise throughout the story, and in this case those open issues lead to a conclusion that's a little too complicated, but still believable. The muckety-mucks at the top of the police chain may have been happy with finding a guy to pin the killings on, but the additional work to identify the motive(s) is what really works here. Chelsea Mansions is a nice addition to the series with great procedural work and a bit too much going on at the end. If you're a fan of the series, check it out. If you're new to Maitland's work, I'd start at the beginning and learn about the main characters from there.

[Pgchuis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this one. An American tourist is (literally) thrown under a bus, but then she is forgotten at the expense of a Russian oligarch (yawn!). The Ugandan with the infectious disease was wholly irrelevant to the plot and seems to have been included solely to get Brock out of the way for much of the book. I worked out who John Greenslade was very early on, and the murderer was obviously 'off' right from the beginning.

As ever the solution was obscure and unrealistic and in this instalment involved an international incident which was introduced about 90% of the way through. I'm nearing the end of these, and they seem to be tailing off a bit.

[Catlib · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was to be my third novel (and fourth story) about the Chelsea Flower Show. But sadly it wasn't about the show at all after the first chapter. It was my second novel experience of Scotland Yard, but Jury and Wiggins it isn't.
The famous Fortnum & Mason ice-cream dish is a KNICKERBOCKER Glory, not the "kniccurbocker" glory of this novel. Easily checked online.

So this book gets only 3 stars from me. I did enjoy the story for itself, and the good guys.

But I wanted to give it a -1 for that horrid and completely unnecessary and chilling afterword.

[Cynthia Lowell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be ready to know something about all the wars that have taken place in the world during the last 150 years.
This drags through battles that they assume everyone is savvy.
Plenty of successful surprises, and detectives assumptions before the end, even then not everyone
Is agreeing all the details should be made public knowledge.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complex story about a murder if an American woman in London followed by the murder of a powerful rich Russian. The case is about figuring out the connection between the two as well as insider relationships with the detectives. All based around a hotel and interconnected buildings and the obsession with the location.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was right in front of our noses the entire time!
This book would not be too long if the plot was not doing a Zelig-type trip through history.
I think the author forgot to put a character on the Titanic to zip it up.

[Jeannette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was good but not as good as some of his others. Brock has always been the driving force but with him out of commission for much of the book, it let Kathy on her own to shine or screw up.

[Birgit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing story it holds your interest until the end. I have read a few of this author's novels and enjoyed every one of them. This is probably one of his best.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book in this series I’ve read. I will be reading more novels in this series.

[Maura Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciate the ongoing character development and the deep research Maitland does for background/plot.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great addition to a wonderful series. Brock is waylaid by a mysterious virus early in this story, so Kathy Kolla is in charge. Another really sticky plot involving The Spider. And in this one, he gets his comeuppance! We discover that MP Hadden-Vane is up to his pernicious manipulations when a little old lady from America is killed by being thrown in front of an on-coming bus! coming back to her hotel after a day at the Chelsea Flower show. The next day a Russian Billionaire who lives in the mansion next door to the hotel in which Nancy is staying is killed with three knife stabs to his chest in the locked garden across from his mansion where he has gone for an after-dinner cigar. It takes a long time before these two killings are connected. Turns out Nancy is the half-sister of the billionaire. The billionaire's mother urges Hadden-Vane to kill her. The owners of the hotel in which Nancy and her friend, Emerson, are staying are also involved in the killings. The hate the billionaire because he has attempted to force them to sell their hotel to him for his mansion, and also because they have old crimes they are covering up. Moszynski finds out that Toby's father has killed Buster Crabb, the missing underwater expert that was thought to be killed when inspecting and photo-ing a Soviet cruiser based in London in 1956. Toby idolized his father and kills M. to keep his father's secret.
The character's story is furthered when a new "love' interest in Kathy's life turns out to be the long-lost son of Brock's. The story ends with Nancy, as a girl, in the hotel, hearing screams that she thinks are "ghosts." They're really Buster Crabb's screams as he is being tortured in the undergound parts of the hotel complex. Very complex weaving of many plot threads together, with the usual good development of the characters involved.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book in the Brock/Kolla police procedural series, but it's definitely not the best of the bunch. Two major issues that interfered with my enjoyment of the book: (1) Brock is absent from a good portion of the book due to a health problem (I won't say more in order to avoid spoilers). That means that Kolla spearheads the investigation, but without more of Brock's presence, and the interaction between the two, the book suffers. (2) There are just too many characters and too many backgrounds going on in the book. You've got the American tourists (one of whom is killed in the early pages of the book), the odd batch of people running the hotel in which the Americans are staying, a meddling Canadian man who seems determined to insert himself into the investigation for unknown reasons, a bunch of Russian emigres, their brilliant but eccentric banker, several British thugs, a shady Member of Parliament, members of Britain's security services, Met hierarchy...plus the usual gang from Brock's division. With so many people and backstories competing for attention, the book is just too busy and distracted, and the overall focus suffers. I also found one particular plot twist to be a bit too contrived, but won't say more so as not to spoil it for those who haven't read this one yet. Fans of the series will, of course, want to read this one, but should adjust their expectations accordingly.

[Jon Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book in the series. Another interesting plot well constructed.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brock and Kolla are characters whose development over the series has been a pleasure to follow. In this book, they are investigating the murder of an elderly American tourist, killed as she leaves the Chelsea Flower Show. Then a few days later, a wealthy Russian living in a house on the quiet street where the American was staying is murdered in a private park. It is not clear whether the two crimes are connected, though the geographic coincidence is suggestive.

As always, the book has solid procedural details, excellent interaction between the police team, interesting minor characters, and a plot with surprising twists. The places are vividly done too - the Chelsea neighborhood where the crimes are centered, Kolla's trip to Boston and Cape Cod. There is an interesting historical aspect which involves both the people (the victims and their killer) and the places (the Chelsea neighborhood). And there is a real surprise for Brock in the end.

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a new series to me whose main characters are the DCI (Brock) and DI (Kolla) of the Serious Crimes Unit of Scotland Yard. In this book, an elderly American tourist is killed by being thrown under a bus and there is no apparent reason for this murder. And then a Russian ex-pat millionaire who lives next door to the hotel in which the tourist was staying, is also killed. Is there a connection between the two slayings? Brock and Kolla along with their team and a visiting Canadian professor with secrets of his own, are on the case. The story starts out well but becomes extremely complicated and somewhat surreal as it progresses..........and in the end, you are still confused as to exactly who killed who and for what reason. There is a lot going on here but I liked it well enough to read another of this author's books.

[Carol Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agatha Christie on steroids he wrote! You betcha!
This book did my head in trying to keep track of it all, but then my concentration levels have always been dodgy so not sure if it was because of that or the story itself.. it got a bit bogged down in a few places.
I Loved The Promised Land, Book 13 in the Brock & Kolla series, that was a Five Star for me. This book had most of the things I loved about it but seriously I should have read the series from the start because Barry Maitland just gets better!
Curious as to why he writes Mom using the American spelling? You’d think being a man Scots born & now living here in Australia that he would naturally spell the word Mum? as most Brits & Ex Brits do?
Btw I only meant to give four stars for this one just couldn’t be bothered changing it...

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to rate this book, but finally gave it three stars. Let me say up front, I LOVE THIS SERIES. It's one of my favorites and I think Maitland is one of the most underrated mystery authors writing today.

I'm judging this book against the other Brock and Kollas, which means it's going up against some of the best mystery novels I've read in the last 5 years. Within that select company this book gets three stars.

My quibble? The plot struck me as a little all over the place---too many things tied up with too many people sitting in rooms telling you what had happened. But still--I was hooked from page four and devoured the book in two days. I can't wait for the next installment in their adventures.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a harmless American tourist is brutally murdered leaving the Chelsea Flower Show, it seems like a random crime. But David Brock and his squad see the signs of planning in the killer's escape. Then a second murder takes place right next to the hotel where the first victim was staying. There must be some connection between the crimes, but with Brock in a coma in the hospital, and most of the team quarantined, it's up to his Detective Inspector Kathy Kolla to take over the case. There's also a mysterious, possibly sinister Canadian academic who seems to be following the murders--or is it Kathy he's interested in? Another winner from Maitland.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid (though slightly too historically complicated) installment in the Brock and Kolla saga. I always love these characters and the mysteries they're investigating, and this book--quick and full of intrigue, Russians, not one, but two murders, and another potential boyfriend for Kathy--didn't disappoint.

I wish there'd been more of Pip, the young female officer Maitland introduced in Dark Mirror. She got the smallest of small roles and because I'd liked her in the previous story, I was hoping she'd have played a bigger part. Maybe next time.

[Grey853 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy a solid British police procedural, this would be a good one to read. There are well-developed characters and an incredibly detailed plot.

When an elderly tourist is murdered, it seems like random crime. However, when a Russian who lives on the same block is also murdered soon after, there seems there might be a connection.

The only downside for me was that Brock's illness and the espionage aspect seemed a bit far-fetched. Despite that, it was a good read.