In Babel, Kathy Kolla and David Brock, Scotland Yard's brilliant and
unconventional crime-solving team, take on an unsettling new mystery
that touches many sensitive issues: Arab fundamentalism, genetic
engineering, and murder.Following her ordeal in the stakeout at the
Silvermeadow supermall, Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla is on leave, so
haunted by past events that she is tempted to quit the force for good.
Hearing about this puzzling new case makes her realize that nothing can
keep her out of the game for too long. Professor Max Springer, a
distinguished if controversial academic, has been brutally murdered on
the steps of a London university. Springer was known for his stand
against Islamic extremism, but was that motive enough to kill him?
While Kolla and Brock start looking for answers in London's Arab
community, rivalries within the university point in another direction,
and Springer's colleague, a professor of medical genetics, becomes
involved. Is he as troubling a figure as he seems? Meanwhile, why would
somebody leak information about this critical investigation to the
media, risking an explosion in the streets? In this taut and satisfying
mystery, Barry Maitland proves once again that he is one of the masters
of police procedural writing today.