This would be a fantastic novel even if it weren't connected to the excellent Brock and Kolla mystery series. Given the plot synopsis I read, I never imagined this would turn out to be my favorite of this series to date. But this is far more than a police procedural on the subject of child abductions. Maitland, an architect as well as an author, really sinks his teeth into what can hardly be called the secondary subject of the book: the place that fine art takes in our contemporary society. Can a crime be classified as art? Is it harmful to view a victim as a celebrity? What meaning do media circuses and flash mobs have in our society? The book manages to address all these themes intelligently in the midst of a riveting detective story that takes place in a gentrifying London square.

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