Stitch and Bear

A long-running Irish blog with reviews of the best restaurants in Dublin and throughout Ireland. Some wine and cocktails thrown in for good measure!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Spider Trap - Barry Maitland


I've been working in Amsterdam for over 2 months now, most of which has been spent living out of a suitcase in the Marriott hotel. The Marriott has recently refurbished all of their lobby area, including the executive lounge. The lounge now features some bookshelves which are stocked with new, unread books. As I had just finished my current book, I went downstairs to the lounge and did a swap for "Spider Trap" by Barry Maitland. Granted, the choice was limited, but Maitland's book did seem interesting.

A shooting of two teenage girls in inner South London leads to the unearthing of 3 skeletons on an abandoned patch of ground. DCI David Brock and DSI Kathy Krolla are assigned to the case, which takes them back in history to the Brixton riots of 1981 and brings them face to face with a long-established London crime family, headed by Spider Roach.

This novel is one of a series of nine in the Brock and Krolla series, written by Maitland, who has lived in Australia since the mid-1980s. Despite this, Maitland sets his novels in the neighbourhood of his childhood, South London. Despite such a legacy, this novel is a worthwhile read in its own right and will probably entice a lot of readers to pick up more of Maitland's novels.

Maitland skillfully mixes the past and present as he tells this story of organised crime and murder. The story is firmly embedded in the culture of the area and builds well towards the end. His story of a white family controlling all black crime, while distancing themselves from the law is intriguing. But ultimately, they doom themselves through a foolish act. This is a well-written, classy crime novel that isn't sensationalist, but instead intelligent.
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