The Raven's Eye: A Brock and Kolla Mystery
Scotland Yard’s DCI David Brock and DI Kathy Kolla have a lot on their plates in this latest entry in the series. Brock has his hands full with a new boss, who’s planning to implement a lot of unwanted departmental changes (including, naturally, cuts to the budget). Kolla’s seemingly routine investigation into the accidental death of a local woman gets pretty complicated, pretty quickly, and soon Brock and Kolla are trying to solve the mystery of the victim’s identity and determine whether her death was an isolated incident or part of a larger picture. As always, the strength of the book rests on the shoulders of its stars, Brock and Kolla, whose professional and personal relationship (Brock is Kolla’s friend and colleague, but also her mentor) is, from time to time, more interesting than the cases they are working. This is not one of those times, though: here, the mystery is intriguing and cleverly constructed, and series fans should find themselves impatiently turning the pages, trying to figure out what’s going on. --David Pitt