I had the pleasure of meeting Barry Maitland at the recent BAD Crime Writers Festival in Sydney. I hadn’t read any of his books, so I thought I’d start at the very beginning - his debut novel.

In a previous life, Maitland was an architect, and this knowledge of the built environment informs The Marx Sisters. The heart of this novel is a place: Jerusalem Lane, “largely untouched by development since it was first built up, in a haphazard fashion, by small builders and speculators in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.” Its location provides a short cut for London commuters, which in turn provides a livelihood for the wave of refugees after the Second World War who set up lucrative small businesses. For these migrant families, Jerusalem Lane provides their home, their work and their community.

When the elderly Meredith Winterbottom, a great-granddaughter of Karl Marx, is found dead in her bedroom, it’s assumed to be natural causes. However, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla feels all is not what it seems. Meredith lives with her sisters, Eleanor and Peg and they are under a lot of pressure from developers to sell, but are unwilling to leave their beloved home. Chief Inspector David Brock of Scotland Yard is brought in to assist with the investigation, and matters become more complicated by a second Marx sister’s death, and the discovery of valuable original letters written by Karl Marx.

This the first in the Brock and Kolla series and is a cut above your average police procedural. Brock and Kolla are ordinary police officers, going about their work without any apparent alcohol or drug abuse, which is a refreshing change for the genre! Maitland’s feeling for place has an unusual warmth and affection. As Kathy reflects one evening as she walks by Jerusalem Lane on her way home, she sees it “as a piece of nineteenth-century London in the final moments of its life. Suddenly its presence appeared incredibly robust and indelible, every angle and texture an essential part of the reality of the neighbourhood, like the presence of an old and characterful relative whose imminent passing seems inconceivable.”

The Marx Sisters is a superior read, suitable for all readers, not just crime novel lovers. I can’t wait to read further investigations with Brock and Kolla.