Silvermeadow: A Kathy and Brock Mystery (Kathy and Brock Mysteries)

When Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Sergeant Kathy Kolla of Scotland Yard's Serious Crimes Task Force get a tip that a vicious armed robber who's gotten away from them before has been sighted at the Silvermeadow shopping mall near London, they use the investigation into the disappearance of a teenaged mall employee as an excuse to surveil the mall in case the robber returns. Then the girl's body turns up in a trash-compacting plant not far from the mall, and Brock and Kathy's search for her killer takes them and their squad back to Silvermeadow, where rumors of other missing girls last seen at the mall soon come to their attention. Maitland's riveting police procedural makes the most of this setup with an intricately layered plot that never fails to surprise the reader, a number of well-drawn and picaresque minor characters, and a pulse-pounding denouement. --Jane Adams