Despite its contemporary setting, the premise of Maitland’s latest sounds thoroughly Victorian – a beautiful, learned young woman succumbs painfully to arsenic in the London Library, leaving behind several friends, relatives and acquaintances, all with something to possibly gain from her death. The victim led a complicated, secretive life, and DI Kolla and DCI Brock find themselves chasing up all manner of strange leads. Not the least of them is the question of how one procures a fatal quantity of arsenic in twenty-first-century London.

A complex and satisfying tale with enough scarlet herrings and intriguing bit players to keep the pages turning well into the night.