The Marx Sisters

Brock & Kolla #1

by Barry Maitland

Detective Kathy Kolla's first case is one for the books. Meredith Winterbottom, a resident of Jerusalem Lane--a quaint section of London inhabited by Eastern European immigrants--and a great-granddaughter of Karl Marx, is found dead. Was she the victim of greedy real-estate developers, or was she killed for the politics of another age? When a second Marx sister is killed, David Brock, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, is brought in to help. As Kathy and Brock delve into the Lane's eccentric melting pot, they find unpublished letters from Marx to Engels; a possible fourth volume of Das Kapital; an endless list of shady suspects; and a plot to end Kathy's investigating days for good. Can they unravel the mystery before Kathy's first case is her last?

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

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Marx Sisters and I was very happy to spend time with two relatively normal police officers leading relatively normal lives. I sometimes get tired of the alcoholics (and worse) who feature as 'great' detectives in many books in this genre.

Due to the fact that Brock and Kolla, so far anyway, do not have huge personal issues the author had time to treat us to an excellent story with lots of solid police procedure and many twists and turns in the plot. The characters of both Brock and Kathy Kolla were well written and I enjoyed the way they worked together.

This is only the second book I have read by this author. The first was from another series and I was not really keen on it. This one however is full of promise and I look forward to the next book.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The death of the elderly Meredith Winterbottom could easily have been from natural causes – but lead investigator Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla was suspicious. Living with her two sisters, Eleanor and Peg, the three women were refusing to leave their apartment in Jerusalem Lane in London, where developers were gradually buying everyone out in the surrounding area. But the ladies were determined to stay where they had been for many years.

Partnering Kathy for this case was Scotland Yard Inspector David Brock – which seemed odd in itself – but Kathy found herself getting along with Brock and when they bounced ideas off each other, came up with some sound answers. But when papers came to light connected to the late Karl Marx, both Kathy and Brock wondered if there was more to the case than there seemed…

The Marx Sisters by Aussie author Barry Maitland is a great crime/mystery novel – first in the Brock and Kolla series, I’m keen to read on in the series. The twist at the end surprised me as I thought I’d worked it out! I have thoroughly enjoyed this author’s work in the past and this one didn’t disappoint. Highly recommended.

[Damo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Marx Sisters is the debut novel of Barry Maitland, a police procedural mystery that is set in London and introduces Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla and Detective Chief Inspector David Brock.
An old woman is found dead in her bed with a cursory examination suggesting that she has been suffocated which prompts a post-mortem examination. Why would someone murder a harmless old woman? Okay, she was a bit of a busybody and some people could find her loud nature abrasive but surely that's no reason to top the old dear.

The case is Detective Kathy Kolla's to investigate but she is a little perturbed to find Detective Chief Inspector David Brock of Scotland Yard's Serious Crimes Branch has been called in to assist. Brock is widely admired as being an excellent detective, having solved some very high profile cases but Kolla can't work out why he would be assigned to such a low profile case such as this.

The thought processes of Scotland Yard's powers that be aside, Kolla and Brock begin their investigation in the apartment of Meredith Winterbottom, the aforementioned dead woman. She lived with her two sisters, Eleanor and Peg and the three of them are part of a small, rather isolated and insular London neighbourhood referred to as Jerusalem Lane. The neighbourhood is made up of an aging population, mainly refugees from Central Europe and at first glance it looks as though the residents all get on well together.

At first glance...

But an interesting fact about these people is unearthed in the course of the investigation. Almost to a person they are selling up their businesses and houses and leaving the neighbourhood. A developer is buying out Jerusalem Lane with plans of building a huge new business complex on the site. The only people who have refused to sell are Meredith, Eleanor and Peg.

Jerusalem Lane provides a number of suspects, both likely and unlikely, as does the stubborn immovability of the sisters in the face of the developers who want to buy their house. Speaking of the sisters, as the name of the book suggests, they are great-granddaughters of Karl Marx, the letters and inscribed books they have inherited could also be reason enough to motivate someone to murder.

DS Kolla and DCI Brock move steadily through the case rarely wavering into possible distractions of personal lives. While this keeps the story moving nicely it also means we learn very little about the two main characters. In fact, David Brock remains just as enigmatic at the end of the book as he was when he was first introduced, the longest description of the man came as the rumours that Kathy Kolla had heard about him.

The rapport between Kolla and Brock is one of the more appealing aspects of the book. They combine nicely as a team together to ensure that the investigation runs smoothly. The determined and driven Kolla pushes forward as hard as she can at every opportunity while the laid back experience of Brock throttles back the investigation at just the right time. It's a combination that I thought worked very well.

One aspect of many police procedurals that often drives me crazy but is thankfully missing in The Marx Sisters is any suggestion of police bureaucracy or political game-playing by the senior officers. The focus is always on the investigation which I found particularly refreshing and enabled the momentum of the story to be maintained throughout.

Far from being a single-dimensioned murder mystery, The Marx Sisters is a complex story with layer upon layer of unexpected twists told in an engaging style. Barry Maitland has started the Kathy Kolla and David Brock series with an outstanding story.

[El · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I inadvertently started reading this series with book #10, Dark Mirror, I decided that it was pretty decent and there are all these other books in the series, and now I have to read them all. So I immediately ordered books 1 & 2 from the library, in hopes of being able to get through these books quickly. (Not because they're not good, but just because I have so many other books I also need to read. NEED.)

What I had liked about Dark Mirror was that it involved so many details about things I am already interested in. This one did as well, to a lesser degree. This story is about Marxism! Or, sorta. There is talk of Marxism and Stalinism and other Red issues, and that's a lot of fun to read in a British thriller. I guess it's sort of a novelty because it's not a Russian novel, which is primarily where I read about that sort of thing.

While Dark Mirror involved primarily a graduate student or two, this story is about three elderly women. Elderly women are safe and innocent, right? WRONG. Did you not watch Cloak & Dagger ever in your life? Old women are super scary and dangerous. I don't trust any of those golden girls.

So, yes, another fun read in the Brock and Kolla series, and I think I will continue to enjoy reading them. Unfortunately Kathy Kolla is not always very bright and she makes very sad decisions on how she'd like to run her life (or her career), and that's frustrating as a reader. She made some poor choices in Dark Mirror too, so I can't even say she gets smarter as she moves up the career ladder. But it seems Brock will always be there to catch her. He sort of strikes me as the Vincent D'Onofrio/Bobby Goren of the partnership. In fact, that's exactly how I visualize him. Except with maybe a little less bloat.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25 stars - English Ebook

Review follows later.

[Reggie Billingsworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rankin,Robinson and Lovesey have spoiled me.

Consequently, Barry Maitland's first Brock and Kolla title, while entertaining, was disappointing to me in two pretty basic areas: the use of that Woman As Victim plot device, and the apparent lack of respect for his own character's professionalism.

Kolla is continually referred to by her first name only with minimal reference to her Detective Sergeant title. What then, one might ask, in Maitland's mind is her status? Some kind of jumped up Gurl Detective? She must have shown some smarts to even pass the Sergeant's exam. What gives?

The male detectives are automatically referred to by their last names, all the time. Meanwhile little Kathy Kolla remains title-less far too often. So what's the deal? Is this 1997 (then unconscious) chauvinistic insensitivity? I suspect as much.

Further problem...twice Maitland makes Kolla enter into a hugely and potentially dangerous situation so that the Gothic plot creaks far too obviously. Maybe we excuse it for a first time writer but I shall be wary as I explore further into more recent Brock & Kolla titles. Bone-headed moves like the ones Maitland allows Kolla deserve a serious desk duty sentence in the more realistic 2014 world of police procedurals and readers are not so ready to forgive these days.

Even so, the plot overall reveals an entertaining mixture of generations disputing ancestral socialist inheritance in an era of Thatcherite Destruction of London's History. The potential is there. Shall I tackle a few more of the series titles in hopes of the soundly crafted writing leading us to more sophisticated and reasonable plot complexities? Um....maybe not.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad at al, a great plot around works of karl marx and books - greed is a powerful enemy - a bit far-fetched from time to time, but hey who am I to critisize an author !!!
I liked the characters of brock and kolla (especially kathy kolla who goes blindly ahead, and risks her life but that's a thriller for you) - i look forward to reading more about that team

[Sam Still Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Marx Sisters is the first of the Brock/Kolla mysteries and one of the more difficult for me to track down. I finally located a copy in Kinokuniya, Sydney but discovered more recently that most of the series is available as e-books.

If you’re familiar with the series (I only have two more books to read), you’ll know that they can be read out of order without problems (except keeping up with who Kathy is seeing). Being familiar with the more recent books in the series though, I could sense that this book was a little grittier, a little more rough around the edges but I liked that. It was a bit more graphic, a few more swear words but that didn’t bother me at all.

What was different about this book was that it was split into two parts – one for each murder of the sisters (dubbed the ‘Marx’ sisters due to their beliefs). Kathy isn’t working directly with Brock at this time, but Brock joins her investigation as an elderly lady is murdered at home in Jerusalem Lane, ‘a little piece of Dickensian London’ where the developers are about to rear their heads. Meredith’s death can’t be solved, but when her sister dies as well, more secrets about the Lane and its inhabitants are revealed. The conclusion was a nice surprise too- I didn’t suspect the murderer!

I do enjoy Barry Maitland’s books and I’ll be disappointed when I’ve read them all. They’re a well written series about homicide detectives in London, not overly gory and well thought out.

[Jaksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, interesting characters, fabulous setting - antiquated buildings in the center of London. What more could you want? Glad I found this writer, this series of novels - and there are a lot of them!

Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla are investigating the death of an elderly woman who lived with her other two (elderly) sisters, each in their own flat in an area known as Jerusalem Lane. It's a quaint, old-fashioned area of small shops and (busybody) neighbors, but it's headed for new development, a fact which figures into the story. The crime element: two of the sisters went out for a walk, came back and found the third sister dead in bed, most likely asphyxiated. There's an intriguing angle to all of this, involving a search for old books, letters and papers, even a ms. which might have been owned or written by Karl Marx.

The story grows complex as Brock and Kolla interview the neighbors: a doctor, a lawyer, shopkeepers, book sellers, small restaurant owners. It's fun to watch these people lie, hedge, complain, whine, go on about what seems to be nothing, fabricate, avoid, and you name it. It's a great story in that regard: how people try to keep from telling the truth unless - and whenever - it aids them.

As for Brock and Kolla - he's dignified, intelligent, professional; she's rough round the edges. There's no hint of a 'romance' between them. (Which I love! Let's keep it real!) But he likes her and she respects him. I fully intend to continue this series, one of the best 'new' ones (new to me) I've lately discovered.

Four stars

[Pascale · Rating 1 out of 5]

As inane as 99% of all murder mysteries, and even more annoying for holding out so much promise. Setting the story in a pocket of central London ripe for redevelopment while it is still home to a healthy constituency of exotic characters, including 3 illegitimate descendants of Karl Marx, was a brilliant idea. For chapter after chapter Maitland manages to tease the reader successfully: was Meredith killed by the real estate sharks, or by people after the precious Marx collection in her possession? Or was it something to do with her dredging up war crimes committed by her Polish neighbors? Unfortunately, he then yields to the temptation of piling up red herrings, and to make them plausible spends an age building up subplots around Meredith's worthless son Terry, a young architect (Bob) and a lesbian academic (Judith). After such laborious efforts to widen the pool of suspects, he let me down badly by having Meredith murdered by her own loving sisters, who then commit suicide one after the other. I mean this to be a spoiler: had I known the book would end this way, I would have cast it promptly and saved many hours. The conceit of the dear doddery ladies being capable of murder is as old as "Arsenic and Old Lace", but "The Marx Sisters" isn't supposed to be a zany comedy and the finale of this book makes no sense whatsoever.

[Bicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5* reduced to 4*.

A good beginning to what promises to be an interesting partnership between DS Kathy Kolla and DCI David Brock. Interestingly, at least in this book, it is Kathy who is the more important character and the one who has the decisive insights. As suggested by the title it is of particular interest to those who have flirted with Karl Marx and know a bit about his personal life and the ideological schisms within the left. But beyond it, it is a gentle and pensive commentary on the passing away of the old as the plot centres on Jerusalem Lane,an old London neighbourhood under threat of development.

The reason I have not been able to give 5* is because the character of DCI Brock is insuffuciently sketched out.

At the moment there are thirteen books in the series, so it is well worth trying out for those looking for fresh series with deep catalogues.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questa estate sono stata a Londra e, tra le altre cose, ho visitato la tomba di Marx. Da lì mi è nata una certa curiosità per la sua vita nella capitale inglese, ma prima di darmi alla saggistica ho preferito iniziare da questo giallo in cui si palesa il solito manoscritto segreto.
Il libro si lascia leggere e la storia gira attorno a una speculazione edilizia più che plausibile, ma i colpi di scena finali sono stati troppi e francamente non necessari. "Sbagliare" il primo colpevole è una prassi abbastanza comune, sbagliarne 3 o 4 mi fa solo pensare che si volesse allungare il brodo. Oltretutto, una volta che si passava al nuovo sospettato, i fili della storia del presunto colpevole precedente venivano lasciati cadere senza troppe cerimonie. Molto meglio l'inizio, con la descrizione di Jerusalem's Lane e della sua solida comunità.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am having trouble rating this one. I wanted to round up to three stars, but realized that I could not. The book was OK and GR ratings says two stars is OK, so two stars it is.

The storyline in this book is not bad. But, at the same time, I felt like I just kept reading and reading and not getting anywhere in it.

I also found that Maitland treated the women really poorly in this book. They all, including the lesbian (oh! how progressive he included a lesbian!) were all hussies cheating with married men (or in the case of the lesbian a married woman), or they were the pathetic, hard-done-upon wives, one of which became the woman scorned. After that they were "too old" to have an affair, but were still some stereotype of gossipy, meddling, overbearing, or something else not flattering, or too young with only one girl/woman in that category being the wishy-washy, weepy grandchild/niece of the three "Marx" sisters. Also, the above-mentioned lesbian (yes, I am over-using that term, but that is because Maitland did too) is a tenured professor at an Ivy League school but then is undermined by descriptions of her 'coasting on her reputation', 'causing the suicide-death of a student' and behaving in underhanded ways towards the sisters. Plus, she is applying for a position at a far less prestigious school somewhere else?!? What professor who has tenure at an Ivy League school (who has tenure anywhere) applies for an entry-level position somewhere else?!?

Included in these unflattering portrayals of womanhood is protagonist Kathy Kolla, who also happens to be one of the cheating hussies. On top of that Kolla not once, but twice, runs head long into dangerous situations without a second thought nor telling anyone what she is doing nor where she is going, and where the second case really was not even all that urgent, so even though she made it to the rank detective sergeant she is thoughtless about her safety and her training (yay! a female protagonist - how progressive! watch how Maitland undermines her with questionable morals, condescension, and boneheaded decisions - oh, not so progressive after all).

Please notice too that I call Kolla Kolla, a curtesy that Maitland does not afford this character. Where all of the male characters are named by their titles or their last names, Maitland diminishes Kolla by calling her by her first name throughout, even among characters who 'forced' the first-name basis on the situation, but only included Kolla but not also Brock (telling of this pattern, I have no idea what Brock's first name is, even though it must have been mentioned once or twice in the book, it is only his frequently-used last name that I can recall). Of all of the characters, the only others referred to be their first names with any type of regularity are the teenager (who is, a teenager so that fits), and the three sisters some of the time. Oh, and one man - Dr. Sundeep Mehta. Oh! So progressive, Maitland included a (one) brown guy - but then also made a point of having Brock refer to this character as Sundeep rather than doctor or even Mehta, and usually after another character used another more respectful form of address, which read as undermining (so, not so progressive after all).

The whole book seems to be that way - Oh look! So progressive, including this or that character. Nope! Just for pretend, just for show. The supposedly progressive character will be included, but then undermined along the way. To me, that is worse than just not including them. Important to note: none of the white men in the book got this treatment. Even the scuzzy ones were afforded more respect.

After that, there were many grammar mistakes that detracted from the reading of the book. I mean seriously, what does Maitland have against apostrophes and quotation marks? It is not as if he did not use them; almost worse, he used them somewhat randomly. Regularly during the book he:
>had people speaking with no quotation marks at the start of what they are saying but then included at the end
>quotation marks at the start but not the end
>no quotation marks for speaking at all
>sometimes the above-mentioned quotations marks were single, and sometimes they were double, or he mixed it up
>single quotation mark at the start and double at the end of what someone is saying
>double quotation mark at the start and single at the end of what someone is saying
>switching speakers in different paragraphs (good) but with no quotation marks to indicate either that someone is speaking, or that it is a new speaker
>switching paragraphs for the same speaker without a new topic for no apparent reason, and with apparently random decisions on whether to use quotation marks or not
>my personal favourite, switching speakers within the same paragraph with no quotation marks used at all

And then also
>using possessive nouns with no apostrophe before the s
>using the contraction 's for 'is' but with no apostrophe
>throwing in 's when it was just a plain old plural with no possessive nor contraction

I often felt as if I were reading a really long comment on a social media feed. It was annoying, often confusing, and detracted from the overall enjoyment of the read. The poor grammar was also the reason that I could not, in good conscience, round up to three stars.

I have been debating whether to give book #2 a try or not. Right now, I am refraining from adding it to my TBR list. If I happen to come across that book, I might read it, but I might not. Definitely, I would not go out looking for it.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

My favourite book of 2002 so far - which isn't a hard title to get as it's the first book I've finished reading this year! It is a deserved title though and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. As I read this book for a mailing list discussion group I'll leave commenting further on how much I liked it until the discussion starts.

[on characters and setting]

I'm interested in both of the main characters. I think Kathy Kolla was a more roundly portrayed character in this book and we didn't learn nearly so much about David Brock. I'm intrigued to see what happens next with this partnership as the pairing of a Scotland Yard inspector with a CID sergeant seems to have been on a one off basis for the case in this book. I'm wondering what gets them together again for book two. I really liked the way that they were brought together and how we didn't learn about it until the second half of the book.

Overall I think Maitland didn't do a bad job of characterisation, but I don't think it was his strongest point. Some of the minor characters didn't quite seem all there and I found Kolla a bit inconsistently written from time to time.

The setting definitely came alive for me. It came more alive in the second half than the first. Having the setting destroyed affected me quite powerfully. In the first half I couldn't see the author setting up Jerusalem Lane for us so solidly and then tearing it down as we found out was planned. I was quite shocked when we found it as a building site at the beginning of the second half of the book.

With a different setting this would have been an entirely different story, the lane was definitely an essential part of the plot. That said I found myself thinking of the setting as being in other cities in the UK rather than London but I can't quite put my finger on why I kept thinking that thought.

[on the plot]

I loved the time span of the plot. The six month gap really worked for me as did the fact that we discover that Brock had a different agenda and wasn't really interested in Meredith's death at all in the first half of the book. I think this accounts for some of the problems that Mike pointed out such as the police not following up on the Judith Naismith lead. I don't think the police (other than Kathy) were particularly bothered in proving that Meredith's death was a murder anyway.

The resolution was the weakest part of the book but I didn't think it was terrible. I rolled my eyes a little at Kathy jumping off her sick bed to catch the culprit single handedly but it didn't wreck the book for me. For me it was the opposite of what Maddy said: the plot all the way along was good enough that I didn't reduce my rating to account for the weaknesses of the ending.

[on the best and worst scenes]

When I first saw this question I had trouble thinking of stand out scenes but everything that everyone else has mentioned has had me nodding and thinking that I liked it too. I liked the book as a whole and there wasn't really anything in it that didn't work for me. I agree that it's a bit of a cliche to have the female half of the partnership chucking herself into danger at the finale but this worked for me because I felt it was more Kathy Kolla's book than David Brock's and so it seemed reasonable, if not very sensible, for her to be the one taking chances rather than him.

[on the first in a series]

It didn't feel like the first book of a series to me and that's a good thing because it means I think that Maitland avoided making it too formulaic. I liked the fact that we didn't get given tons of background information on the characters straight off, I'm looking forward to finding out more about them as we go on. I wonder if Maitland was planning on making Kolla and Brock a partnership when he wrote this book, I presume that something must happen in the later books to bring them together on a permanent basis.

[in summary]

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series very much. I really liked this book and want to know more about the central characters and hope that Maitland can keep up the quality of the plots and the backgrounds. I'm having trouble keeping myself from picking up the second book but I don't want to have forgotten it by the time the discussion comes around again.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wonderful Goodreads friend from Down Under, Magda, never leads me wrong! She recommended an entire list of Australian writers, and Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab proved to be excellent.

Well, that was not a fluke. Another of Magda's recommendations, the Kolla and Brock mystery series, really excels! How good? I was reading this London-based police procedural while I ran computer diagnostics, and I came home late from work because I literally couldn't put it down until I'd gotten to the very last page -- long after I'd done with work! Written by the Scottish-born Barry Maitland, who has resided in Australia for decades, The Marx Sisters follows an investigation that pairs up-and-coming CID Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla with a Scotland Yard old hand, David Brock. Despite red herrings galore, Maitland plays fair with readers who, nevertheless, will remain unlikely to puzzle out the identity of the murderer of a 70-something-year-old widow, Meredith Winterbottom, who is battling to remain in the apartment building at 22 Jerusalem Lane where she and her two sisters reside. Suspects range from the developers who are dead set on clearing Jerusalem Lane to Meredith's neighbors (who were less than thrilled with the neighborhood's overbearing resident do-gooder and busybody) to Meredith's own unscrupulous son. Maitland creates memorable dialogue and some wonderful plot twists. No sooner are you certain that you've figured out the murder than another culprit seems inevitable. The suspense builds and builds right to the last few pages.

I've already ordered the next three books in the series -- The Malcontenta, All My Enemies and The Chalon Heads. My only regret? That I didn't order them in time so that I could begin The Malcontenta as soon as I finished The Marx Sisters.

[G Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a multilayered book. On the obvious level it is a mystery filled with family psychosis and greed. And political passions. On another level it is the destruction of 'beloved' England/London. Semi fictional Jerusalem Lane is subject to destruction for modernization in Thatcher era England. The elderly of the street are bought out and one by one they leave their lives. The hymn 'Jerusalem' based on the poem by Blake is almost an anthem in England ...was the holy lamb of God on Englands pleasant pastures seen? And here we are seeing the wholesale destruction of 'Jerusalem' by greedy internal forces (for the betterment of England, they say). I won't discuss the politics further, because it gives away some of the plot. Interesting if not fully drawn mentor and mentored.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and entertaining enough, but sort of uneven. It felt too long and invoked a too-detailed backstory that wasn’t interesting enough to warrant the time spent on it. My copy also spelled Kathy’s last name “Koila” most of the time, when it’s supposed to be “Kolla” according to the book cover. This drove me slightly crazy - how does an editor make this egregious mistake?

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Detective Kathy Kolla's first case is one for the books. Meredith Winterbottom -- a resident of Jerusalem Lane, a quaint section of London inhabited by Eastern European immigrants, and a great-granddaughter of Karl Marx -- is found dead. When a second Marx sister is killed, David Brock, chief inspector of Scotland Yard, is brought in to help. As Kathy and Brock delve into the Lane's eccentric melting pot, they find unpublished letters from Marx to Engels: a possible fourth volume of Das Kapital; an endless list of shady subjects; and a plot to end Kathy's investigating day for good. Can they unravel the mystery before Kathy's first case is her last?"
~~back cover

An excellent mystery! Plenty of unscrupulous suspects, tantalizing clues as to whether there really are unpublished correspondence from Karl Marx, and tantalizing hints of a romantic entanglement between Brock & Kathy, or maybe between Kathy and one of the draughtsmen on the redevelopment project that will completely obliterate Jerusalem Lane. The ending is quite the surprise: with all those hints and suspects, how could anyone pick out the guilty party?

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My library, which I love, adore and think is completely fabulous, recently started using the BorrowBox system. With this system, library members download the BorrowBox app and use it to borrow eBooks and audiobooks. I'm always happy to give anything that increases my access to books a go (especially if I can access the books for free without leaving the house!) so I was pretty keen to try it out. There aren't many ebooks available so my choice was pretty limited. The first book I downloaded was Jennifer Love Hewitt's The Day I Shot Cupid but it was so terrible that even with my deep and abiding love of celebrity memoirs and/or lifestyle guides I could not get past the first chapter. I cannot emphasise how really really terrible that book is (Wikipedia tells me it inspired the popularisaiton of the term "vajazzling": decorating woman's pubic area with crystals. Shoot me now). Urgh.

However, I had more luck with my second title, The Marx Sisters. Mystery novels are one of my favourite genres. I love a world-weary detective, impelled to investigate a world of crime and corruption that confirms his or her dark view of humanity. I love the ability of good mystery writers to use murder as a way to capture entire characters in a few pages while setting these characters, who only briefly feature in the story as part of a murder investigation, against the backdrop of the personal life of the detective, which develops across a series. Some of my favourite series are the Kinsey Milhone Alphabet stories (I have W for Wasted sitting on my bedside table waiting for a day where I have nothing planned so I can spend the whole day lying in bed, drinking hot chocolate and devour it all in one go!) and the first 12 Inspector Lynley novels (seriously, stop at A Place of Hiding. I have read all of them and Elizabeth George spends all of her time in the later novels doing horrible things to the characters we have grown to love. I briefly reviewed the most recent one, Believing the Lie, on Goodreads [review here] and if my review can prevent one person from reading it, then I have done good). I also adore Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther books and very much enjoyed the first twelve or so Stephanie Plum novels. Because I have strong series loyalty, I'm always on the lookout for new authors and detectives so, when I saw this book was the first in a series that has been rated consistently highly on Goodreads, I was sold.

The book features two detectives, homicide detective Kathy Kolla and Scotland Yard Chief Inspector David Brock. They are set the task of investigating the death of Meredith Winters, an old woman who lives in an odd enclave in London called Jerusalem Lane. In Jerusalem Lane, tensions left over from World War II still simmer within a diverse group of people including British nationals and German immigrants. It's an unusual part of London that seems to these detectives like a remnant from another time; a forgotten moment of London's history caught in a particular space. However, the property is in the middle of London and desired by developers with an eye for profit. Meredith held papers that may or may not have belonged to the great Karl Marx that were desperately wanted by an American academic whose career had stalled and Meredith's son was pressuring her to sell so he could liquidate her assets for his hair salon chain. It soon becomes clear that solving this murder is not going to be an simple matter.

The book was released in 1994 and it was really odd reading a police procedural without the technology that is so ubiquitous in crime stories today. There were fingerprint checks and a bit of mention of DNA testing but the characters communicated via fax rather than email and establishing the provenance of an academic at an American university involved writing letters rather than just visiting the university's website. In 1994 I was at high school and I remember having to find books in the library using a card catalogue so it's not like this past is completely foreign to me, but it is amazing reflecting on how far we have come in technologically in just under 20 years. However, despite this slightly jarring historical issue, I enjoyed reading this book. It is the first in the series so it does serve the function of establishing characters, meaning there's a bit more exposition than there usually is in later books but, importantly, it is interesting enough to make me want to read the later books. I give this novel three stars and, as soon as I can figure out how to return it electronically via the BorrowBox app, I will download the next one.

Concerning the BorrowBox app - it does seem to be really focused at audiobook listeners rather than ebook readers, because the range of audiobooks is much larger and has more recent and popular titles than the ebook range. I couldn't find any functionally to change the size of the text like you can with the Kindle app - it looked like the pages were fully typeset and fixed. This meant that the type was a little bit small on my iPhone but would be perfect for an iPad or other tablet. I will keep borrowing books from it because it is so convenient; but, based on its current catalogue, I might run out of books that I want to read sooner rather than later.

[Rosario · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Marx Sisters is the first in a long-running series called Brock and Kolla. Brock is Scotland Yard Chief Inspector David Brock, an experienced officer. Kolla is the much younger Kathy Kolla, a much more inexperienced officer. This first case is set in a little forgotten enclave in the middle of central London, an area where longtime Eastern European immigrants live in the old houses they moved into decades earlier, in between the shiny office blocks.

The Marx Sisters of the title are some of those residents. Their last names are not Marx, but they're all great-grandchildren of the man himself. And then one dies. Was it a personal thing (she wasn't the nicest person in the world), or is there more going on? A developer trying to get their hands on the property? Someone after the Marx manuscripts rumoured to be hidden in the house?

This one wasn't great. I liked the sense of place, but that was about it. The plot could have been interesting, but the twists became a bit too much, tried to be too clever and this made the characters just not ring true. Also, I was bothered by the casual sexism and even misogyny in the characterisation. Wives are nagging shrews, our female detective is a bit of an impulsive airhead, our older male detective is irresistible to even women much younger than him. Bah. I'm not planning to read further in this series.

MY GRADE: A C.

[Jazz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three eccentric sisters live together in an old part of London inhabited by other elderly Eastern European immigrants, who are gradually being bought out to build a huge new development said to revitalize the area. At one time Karl Marx lived in this area and there is a plaque on a bookshop commemorating his time there. One of the last holdouts for selling is Meredith Winterbottom, who is soon found dead with a plastic bag over her head, suffocated while her two sisters were out for a Sunday stroll. It's ruled suicide until there is another death.

Really enjoyed this first novel (which reads like anything but) and am excited to know I have at least 11 more books ahead of me in this series! Maitland is a former architect and the parts in which he describes the process of concept and design really hit home. Never thought I'd be interested in Marx and Engels again, but the characters were extremely interesting and memorable, including the two detectives. It's as much a whydunit as a whodunit. Was going to give it 4-1/2 stars but what the heck, I liked it that much!

[Michael Compton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-crafted mystery populated with quaint and quirky characters in a quaint and quirky setting. The author (an architect by training) makes the dying neighborhood of Jerusalem Lane come alive, and he shows a knowing eye in his portrayals of both the developers who want to despoil the neighborhood and the academics who scheme to preserve (or exploit) its historic connection with Karl Marx. The plot is as sturdy as the prose, and although there are a few too many twists at the end, the ultimate resolution is satisfying. The two detectives, Kathy Kolla and David Brock, are believable, partly because they are so unremarkable. There is something admirable in a writer making his lead characters so dull, but the secondary characters, and the milieu in which they turn, are engrossing enough to carry the reader along.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Fans of Louise Penny, take note!
This is a very well written British police procedural, composed with a sure hand, and peopled with interesting characters -- but not stock quirky "Characters". This was recommended to me by someone who saw that it was recommended for readers who like Louise Penny, and this turns out to be the case. Brock of Scotland Yard appears to be a kindred spirit of Gamache, and hopefully there are plenty of other books in this series to allow for a greater acquaintance with Brock, Kolla, and the others on staff.

[Marley]

Who is killing the the great grandaughters of Karl Marx and why? Gentrification of London and money grubbing, academic "obsession." a family feud--and if so, which family? Fun read with good historical background

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written, with strong characters and a clever mystery. This one's a police procedural (police investigating a murder).

[Gary Van Cott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Kathy (her first name) and Brock (his last name) series. It has an inventive plot which is a real plus. It is probably hard to come up with something new in this genre.

[Carol Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Awesome re read ✅
New favourite Police procedural ✅
Why has Barry Maitland not been nominated??????

🤷‍♀️

[Gaby Meares · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of meeting Barry Maitland at the recent BAD Crime Writers Festival in Sydney. I hadn’t read any of his books, so I thought I’d start at the very beginning - his debut novel.

In a previous life, Maitland was an architect, and this knowledge of the built environment informs The Marx Sisters. The heart of this novel is a place: Jerusalem Lane, “largely untouched by development since it was first built up, in a haphazard fashion, by small builders and speculators in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” Its location provides a short cut for London commuters, which in turn provides a livelihood for the wave of refugees after the Second World War who set up lucrative small businesses. For these migrant families, Jerusalem Lane provides their home, their work and their community.

When the elderly Meredith Winterbottom, a great-granddaughter of Karl Marx, is found dead in her bedroom, it’s assumed to be natural causes. However, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla feels all is not what it seems. Meredith lives with her sisters, Eleanor and Peg and they are under a lot of pressure from developers to sell, but are unwilling to leave their beloved home. Chief Inspector David Brock of Scotland Yard is brought in to assist with the investigation, and matters become more complicated by a second Marx sister’s death, and the discovery of valuable original letters written by Karl Marx.

This the first in the Brock and Kolla series and is a cut above your average police procedural. Brock and Kolla are ordinary police officers, going about their work without any apparent alcohol or drug abuse, which is a refreshing change for the genre! Maitland’s feeling for place has an unusual warmth and affection. As Kathy reflects one evening as she walks by Jerusalem Lane on her way home, she sees it “as a piece of nineteenth-century London in the final moments of its life. Suddenly its presence appeared incredibly robust and indelible, every angle and texture an essential part of the reality of the neighbourhood, like the presence of an old and characterful relative whose imminent passing seems inconceivable.”

The Marx Sisters is a superior read, suitable for all readers, not just crime novel lovers. I can’t wait to read further investigations with Brock and Kolla.



[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good thing I didn't read this one first (even though it IS the first of the series) because I would never have read any of the others, including the marvelous "The Chalon Heads." For one thing, this book is full of nasty sexual details and comments that do nothing to advance the plot and actually detract from the story. If these disgusting and pointless additions had been edited out, the rest of the book would be much better, still not great, but at least an intriguing mystery.
It is puzzling to me why the first murder is dropped by the police, but it picks up again when there is another murder in the same vicinity. The story then takes several twists and turns, making the reader feel he is on some kind of "murder-go-round" ride! At first I thought the "Marx" aspect was just a mild quirk rather than what the whole plot hinges on, and it became an element that was done very convincingly and well. In fact, despite all the red herrings and apparent side-issues, all the loose ends were tied up cleverly and satisfactorily by the end.

[Laura Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting and complex mystery. I only hope Bob Jones does not show up in the future as a love interest for Kathy. Two things deducted a star and one was Bob's long-winded explanations. I hope I don't have to endure more in future books.

The second thing involved Kathy. Did she take a stupid pill near the end of the book? Because what intelligent cop would head out in the dead of night in a snowstorm, to an isolated place without telling anyone where she's going in order to trap a killer? Then, when she's in the hospital with serious injuries because of this stupid cock-up, she sneaks out and confronts a killer again, stupidly accepting a drugged drink. Even I (having no law enforcement training) was yelling at her NOT to drink it! Yeesh.

Kathy was okay until the dumb decisions near the end, but I really liked the character of Brock. I'm interested in reading more of this series.