All My Enemies

DS Kathy Kolla is ready to report to New Scotland Yard and join DCI David Brock's Serious Crime Division. But before she steps foot in the door, a murder has taken place and she will lead the investigation to solve this well rehearsed slaughter. In this series, Brock and Kolla will work together to solve this crime and put a stop to the person behind the grotesque murderer. Clues lead them to an amateur drama group and they soon realize that other recent murders are tied in to the plays performed by this group. Barry Maitland is an incredible author and the Brock and Kolla series are nothing but exceptional. Maitland definitely knows how to write a book that is not only suspenseful but terrifying. In this dark fiction, Maitland will take you on a disturbing ride to find the killer of these theatrical murders. "All My Enemies" is a story that will not only send chills down your spine but will give you nightmares at night. [...]

First published in the United Kingdom in 1996, this intriguing British procedural, part of a series featuring DCI David Brock and DS Kathy Kolla, has finally crossed the Atlantic. The wait was well worth it. Kathy is to begin her new assignment in the Scotland Yard Serious Crimes Branch, and the day before Brock calls her and asks if she would join him at the scene of the brutal murder of a young woman. This leads to a series of murders, and Kathy, along with her colleagues on the team, investigates various possibilities, although forensics has little to guide them. While the plodding work goes on, she follows what leads develop, however implausible some of them appear. Eventually, she discovers an amateur theatrical group whose the script might as well be written in blood. The clues are deceptive and the plot ingenious, even good theater. The dialogue and prose is as good as it gets, and the character development superb. The novel is suspenseful and engrossing, and is recommended. Next up for this reviewer: Mr. Maitland's latest, "Dark Mirror," published in October.

The most compelling person in Barry Maitland's "All My Enemies" is DS Kathy Kolla, who has been newly posted to Scotland Yard. The day before she officially starts her new job, her boss, DCI David Brock, calls her to the scene of a homicide in South London. An unknown assailant has murdered and mutilated twenty-two year old Angela Hannaford. Who could have slaughtered this young woman in such a grisly manner? Thus begins a grueling investigation into what turns out to be a series of killings that has the police stumped. What connection is there between the victims? Who had the motive, means, and opportunity to commit these atrocities? Brock and his team spare no effort to unravel a mystery that, on its surface, appears to make no sense. Maitland gives Kathy center stage, and her determination to find the killer is unrelenting. Although Brock has a team of detectives who make their share of phone calls, conduct countless interviews, and scrutinize every bit of forensic evidence, it is Kathy who has the insight, tenacity, and intelligence to see connections that others miss. In addition, the author gives us a glimpse of Kathy's traumatic childhood. Painful memories of her parents are rekindled when Kathy's Aunt Mary ssurprises her with a visit that promises to turn into a prolonged stay. As her inquiries progress, Kathy comes into contact with an amateur theater company. There may be some connection between the murders and various plays that this troupe has performed. The scenes showing the rehearsal of Strindberg's "The Father" are particularly well done. We feel the panic of the cast, some of whom do not know their lines and fear that this play is destined to be a colossal flop. Matters are not helped by the behavior of Stafford Nesbit, the drama's director, who verbally abuses his cast for their incompetence. When Brock and Kolla close in on a suspect, they are encouraged until they realize that certain pieces just do not fit. Their failure forces them to search farther afield. "All My Enemies" is an absorbing novel replete with red herrings and the usual twists and turns, some of which strain credulity. However, Maitland does a brilliant job of showing us the many sides of Kathy Kolla, whose compassion, toughness, wry sense of humor, keen mind, and courage make her an appealing character as well as a formidable adversary. At the same time, Brock is a solid presence and a caring mentor who provides Kolla with the support and encouragement that she needs to excel.

Mixing the professional with the personal, Maitland offers a protagonist in All My Enemies who is relatable and interesting, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla stepping into a new job at Scotland Yard in Detective Chief Inspector David Brock's Serious Crime Division. Nothing about this thriller, or Kolla's new position, is predictable, the squad meeting in a basement office and bar named "The Bride of Denmark", Brock's crack team dealing with the brutal murder of a young woman after her return from the theater. As Kathy delves into the recent activities of the victim, she finds a promising connection to the theater and an eccentric, if not malevolent individual who surreptitiously photographs young women as they travel to the city by train. It is the protagonist's individuality and her approach to her work that propels the story, humanizing the Kolla's profession and the quirky cast of characters, from performance artists to unwilling witnesses to a man who knows more than he is telling, DS Kolla driven as much by intuition and personal assessment as data. Kolla follows direction, but isn't afraid to work outside the conventional areas of investigation, pursuing more obscure leads in pursuit of the critical link between the murders and the killer. In fact, it is soon evident that other murders can be linked by time and circumstance to this same killer, a series of unsolved disappearances and murders. While the other investigators tackle the most obvious issues, Kathy makes a more obscure connection, one that will be pivotal to catching a very devious serial killer. To get a better sense of the killer's mind set and the environment from which he draws his inspiration, Kathy joins a small local theater group. There she discovers quite another world, vibrant, emotional and artistically passionate, as well as a series of plays that might hold the key to the murders, all linked somehow through a love of the stage and common physical attributes of the hapless victims. From a camera-toting voyeur to the outrageously eccentric director of the play, from Kolla's elderly runaway married aunt to the conniving mind of a psychopath, Maitland builds a compelling, twisted plot that is shocking in its simplicity, serial murder viewed through the lens of the theater, each garish corpse a grim reminder of a killer's demented thirst for vengeance. Luan Gaines/2009.

New Scotland Yard Serious Crime Branch Detective Chief Inspector David Brock asks his new hire Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla if she can start earlier than negotiated as he has a hot homicide to investigate and could use her help. She agrees. Sunday school teacher Angela Hannaford was brutally murdered in her parents' South London suburban home; the victim's face was badly mutilated by a knife. Kathy leads the inquiry under DCI Brock's mentoring. This is not the first grotesque murder as other women have been victims of what increasingly looks like a serial killer. However, the Hanneford homicide has the first potential break though in the murder cases with a tie to an amateur theater troupe that leads to Brock and Kolla wondering whether the ugliness of the crime was not spontaneous out of control passion, but a rehearsed performance. As she digs deeper, DS Kolla places herself in danger from a culprit watching her every move closely. This is reprint of Kolla's first case working under the supervision of Brock. The story line is a terrific and fabulous police procedural starting with the opening chapter "Madonna without a Face" and continues throughout until the climax with its nod to Equus. Fans of the series will enjoy the first official Brock-Kolla collaboration as ALL MY ENEMIES affirms why this is one of the better long running British police procedurals. Harriet Klausner