Babel by Barry Maitland

Publisher's Synopsis

BABEL is set in the south east of London, around a former polytechnic, now the University of East London, in Docklands. The brutal murder of the university's professor of philosophy is headline news and DCI Brock is brought in to investigate. The university campus is home to many students drawn from the large and varied ethnic communities of south east London. When it becomes clear that the motive for murder may be political and the murderer a Muslim, the public is outraged.

Following her terrifying experiences in SILVERMEADOW, DC Kathy Kolla is on leave, so burned out that she's considering leaving the force for good. But you can't keep a good detective down and soon she's on the phone to Brock asking to be put on the case ...

My Review of Babel by Barry Maitland

Babel is the 6th book in Barry Maitland's DS Kolla and DCI Brock police procedural series. It's set three weeks after the traumatic ending of the previous book, Silvermeadow, and Kathy Kolla is still trying to deal with the experience. I would recommend reading Silvermeadow before tackling Babel in order to understand what Kathy went through and to make sense of the flashback sequences that she now suffers.

Brock and Kolla work in Scotland Yard's Serious Crimes Branch and the case that the team has been assigned to involves the public shooting murder of a philosophy professor on the university steps as he was heading in to give a lecture. Professor Max Springer was a man nearing retirement, a former Oxford professor who was finishing his career at a quieter pace at the University of Central London East. In his day he was a greatly respected and admired teacher producing a vast amount of published work that marked him as a profound thinker.

There is an obvious question that is raised by his death. Why would a seemingly harmless old man be murdered and why would it be done in such a public place?

Fortunately, Brock and his team are given a bit of a kick-start on the case thanks to the CCTV cameras that have captured the slaying. Not so lucky is that the killer was wearing a hood and could not be properly identified. All they can make out is that he was dark complected and seemed to have said "Allah-u-Akbar" or "God is most great", which is the traditional call to prayer and also the battle cry of the religious martyrs, suggesting that the killer is a Moslem.

Upon investigating Springer, it becomes apparent that he only really made one group of enemies when he became vocally opposed to another department at the university. The CAB-Tech department was conducting research into the human genome and Max Springer made his feelings well-known to all. The fact that the majority of scientists who make up the department are Moslems leads Brock and the team to believe that Springer's killer must have come from this group. If only cases were ever that easy.

Babel continues the extremely enjoyable Brock and Kolla series that is as rewarding for its intricate plotting as it is for the ongoing character interactions. Kathy Kolla has become an indispensable part of Brock's team, highlighted here by her absence at the beginning of the case and fears over the prospect that she is considering quitting the force. The easy alliance enjoyed by Kolla and Brock makes them a formidable team and ensures that the investigation progresses at a steady rate. Another regular member of the team is Leon Desai, forensic technician and former lover of Kathy. Their relationship continues to remain troubled and it's interesting to see how this affects the case with Leon's role proving to be ever expanding.

As seems to be increasingly prevalent in thrillers these days, there is a certain level of xenophobia generated when it becomes apparent that Muslims may be involved. Thoughts invariably turn to fatwehs and members of the Islamic Jihad planning to carry out terrible acts of violence as part of their holy war, stereotypes that have become all too familiar in our post-911 world. Maitland makes a good fist of demonstrating that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and deeply religious people. However, there is a definite underlying tension filled with suspicion and mistrust running through the story as cultures clash and the police struggle to come to terms with the traditions of the people they are investigating.

Starting out as a simple murder case, complexity is added by the Muslim killer aspect and the question of how the police should handle the situation becomes a tricky sticking point. A number of small sub-plots shoot out from the case that, on the surface appear unrelated until the entire case begins falling into place with surprising rapidity. What part has been good detective work and what part has been clever manipulation remains unclear right to the very last.

Babel is an interesting story that combines controversial issues, such as genome research, with controversial people, such as the Muslim scientists carrying out the research and then turns the whole thing on its head. Add to this the upheaval within Brock's team, the possibility that Kathy may quit the force, and you have a power charged police procedural that is completely satisfying.

Oh, by the way, I want to add a cautionary note. As with many books, Babel opens with a prologue that relates a tragic story that seems to have nothing to do with the novel that follows. As happens too many times, I completely forgot about the prologue until it was too late. Just remember, the prologue has been included for a reason. Keep it in mind while reading Babel