No Trace by Barry Maitland

Publisher's Synopsis

In a London neighbourhood known or its artists and bohemian style, six-year-old Tracey Rudd is abducted from home without any warning, or sign of violence. She is the third girl abducted under similar circumstances in recent weeks. But this case is different. She is the daughter of notorious contemporary artist Gabriel Rudd, best known for the grotesque "Dead Puppies," a work centred around his wife's suicide five years earlier. While Gabriel exploits Tracey's abduction as an inspiration for a major new work in his upcoming exhibit, Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla hunt for the missing girls' kidnapper, who is suspiciously connected to the eccentric community artists, dealers, and collectors in the neighbourhood.

My Review of No Trace by Barry Maitland

It seems that it's only when police investigations begin to get particularly difficult that Detective Chief Inspector David Brock gets called in. He, along with his accomplished Scotland Yard team, and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla in particular, has a terrific record of closing cases. No Trace, the 8th book in Barry Maitland's police procedural series featuring his dynamically matched pair opens with exactly this kind of scenario.

The disappearance of 6 year old Tracey Rudd, abducted one night from the bed where she was sleeping marks the 3rd such abduction in a matter of weeks. The case has all the hallmarks of the work of a serial predator and Brock and his team is brought in to take the lead in the case.

The missing girl's father is noted artist Gabriel Rudd, a man accused by his in-laws of neglecting his daughter over his work. Rudd's response is to throw himself headlong into a massive art project in his daughter's honour titled No Trace. Urged on by Fergus Tait, the local art gallery director, he plans to channel his grief and pain into this all-consuming effort. Curiously, this isn't the first time he has drawn on personal tragedy to inspire him towards artistic greatness having previously won a major award for a painting he created in honour of his wife who had committed suicide.

Kathy is given a sentry-type role, spending her time mingling with the residents of Northcote Square, familiarising herself with the routines of the residents in the hope of picking up some sort of clue about how or why Tracey might have been abducted. Most of her time is spent with Rudd as he becomes more and more wrapped up in his work, but she also insinuates herself into the lives of other artists such as Poppy Wilkes, Stan Dodworth and Reg Gilbey as well as eccentric neighbour Betty Zielinski and owner of the gallery, The Pie Factory, Fergus Tait. In so doing we are taken on an intimate tour of the modern art world, filled with in-fighting, jealousy and petty criticisms.

But it's through Kathy's insightful detective work that it becomes apparent that this particular case could fall cleanly into place with an arrest made and at least one girl found. But unfortunately there always has to be a snag and Brock and his team find themselves chasing shadows while an alarming number of bodies begin to pile up.

The investigation is propelled along on two fronts as Kathy spends a lot of time digging away at Northcote Square while Brock tends to take a more mobile approach. The result is a fast-paced operation that actually forces things to happen simply through the sustained pressure brought on by their constant presence.

The story starts out as an investigation into a serial predator but soon expands out into a much more diverse scenario as we intimately get to know an art community, slip into the depraved realm of child pornography and then find ourselves facing a no less traumatic murder case. Meanwhile, the police force is in upheaval facing the prospect of a shaking out of older officers, a situation that could mean that Brock's head is on the chopping block.

A significant factor that makes this series so alluring is the teaming of Brock and Kolla. Unlike so many male / female partnerships, there is never a hint of sexual tension to distract from the job at hand. Together they form a strong alliance working independently, yet with a cohesion that makes them a formidable team. Their obvious concern and affection for each other both at work and in their personal lives ensures that we have a couple of characters with which we can strongly relate. This aspect to their relationship is never more in evidence than during the course of events in No Trace.

In each of his books, Barry Maitland latches on to a specialist field and examines it inside out while also unfolding a cunning mystery. In The Verge Practice it was the field of architecture, in Silvermeadow it was an enormous mall complex, in The Chalon Heads it was specialist stamp collecting and in this case we are wrapped up in the world of art. It highlights Brock and Kolla's ability to adapt as they venture into unfamiliar territory, but it also creates a fascinating side story.

No Trace is tightly structured with superb plotting and carefully contained surprises ensuring that there is no certainty in which way the investigation will go. Once again, Barry Maitland displays an exhaustive eye for detail, tying together the eclectic art world with the more pragmatic efforts of Brock and Kolla. This is nothing short of a top notch police procedural novel.