The author of the Belltree Trilogy returns with Scotland Yard’s Brock and Kolla in this “most satisfying twisty mystery of the year” (Kirkus Reviews).

David Brock and Kathy Kolla are summoned to Cabot’s, a venerable dealer in rare stamps on the Strand, and at first they expect a simple case of theft and a pleasant digression from the usual sort of murderous wrongdoing they encounter in the Serious Crime Branch of Scotland Yard. But the case they confront is twistier and far more unsettling than they could have imagined.

An unsavory figure from Brock’s past, slippery East-Ender Sammy Starling, a.k.a. Sammy China, is in deep trouble and asking for Brock’s help. It seems Sammy’s young wife has been kidnapped. But the strange part is that the ransom notes are decorated with rare and valuable Chalon Head stamps of the young Queen Victoria—to whom Sammy’s wife bears an uncanny resemblance. Sammy is convinced a corrupt cop is behind the kidnapping, a theory that Brock and Kolla find hard to believe, since it comes from a man who has made a living from fraud and deceit . . .

“This novel is right up there with the best contemporary crime fiction.” —The Sydney Morning Herald

Barry Maitland