Dark Mirror: A Brock and Kolla Mystery

When Ph.D. student Marion Summers collapses and dies in the London Library in the excellent ninth entry in Maitland's series featuring Kathy Kolla, newly promoted to detective inspector, and Det. Chief Insp. David Brock (Spider Trap , etc.), everyone assumes her diabetes is to blame. But when arsenic is discovered in Summers's system, Kolla takes charge of her first investigation. As part of her thesis, Summers was researching the 19th-century avant-garde painters and poets known as the Pre-Raphaelites. Summers had recently become obsessed with poisons, particularly arsenic, and her theories concerning its role in the lives of the Pre-Raphaelites had caused tensions among her academic peers. With Brock's help, Kolla digs deeper into the young woman's life and uncovers an unsettling past and numerous suspects who may have wished her harm. Maitland crafts a suspenseful whodunit with enough twists and turns to keep even the sharpest readers on their toes. (Oct.)