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Journal Entry 1 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Saturday, April 24, 2004
 One of Maitland's excellent "Brock and Kolla" series, featuring Scotland Yard DCI David Brock and his sidekick, DS Kathy Kolla. This is an intelligent, captivating series, with believable, multi-dimensional characters the reader gets to know better from book to book. The Chalon Heads is - in part - about the world of high-stakes stamp collecting, and includes a lot of interesting history about the first Canadian stamps (one of which gives the book its title).
The whole "Brock & Kathy" series is as follows: The Marx Sisters (1994); The Malcontenta (1995); All My Enemies (1996); The Chalon Heads (2001); Silvermeadow (2002); Babel (2003); and The Verge Practice (2004).
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Journal Entry 2 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, May 05, 2004
I'm sending this book to quinnsmom in Simi Valley, California, as a postal trade for A Crime in the Neighborhood. I hope you'll enjoy this book -- I certainly learned a lot about the world of stamp collecting from it! Best wishes from New Westminster, British Columbia (at left, the Fraser River as seen from the top of my street).
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Journal Entry 3 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Friday, May 14, 2004
Thank you SO much! I have been really wanting to read this for so long. Yours is on the way via air mail. PS: I'm envious of the view from your house!
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Journal Entry 4 by quinnsmom from Hobe Sound, Florida USA on Monday, July 19, 2004
First, I want to thank goatgrrl for sending this book to me. Possibly the best trade I've ever made.
I say, there's nothing quite like an excellent british mystery to get you going in the morning. I started it late last night; I read this while working out on my home gym, read it through breakfast, read it while showering, and then read it just because I couldn't stop reading. What a treat! Sadly I read it out of sequence, now must backtrack and go read the others. And who says bookcrossing is not good for the publishing industry? Not only am I buying the ones I missed, I'm buying this one to add to my british mystery collection!
brief plot summary:
At the beginning of the story, we find our two detective heroes DI Brock & Kathy Kolla at Cabot's, a place that specializes in rare stamps, asked there at the instigation of one Sammy Starling, with whom Brock has had prior acquaintance and not in a positive way. Sammy's wife Eva (very young in her 20s to Sammy's 60+) is missing. Sammy shows the detectives letters which feature some very rare stamps depicting Queen Victoria's head. This series of stamps, the Chalon Heads, are rare & valuable, and the kidnapper is demanding that Sammy buy a particular lot an auction featuring a specific Chalon head stamp that is so rare its bidding starts at about 450,000 pounds. The problem is not that Sammy won't bid on or buy the stamp; he believes that a police officer that he helped to put away for fraud & corruption and who is now out of prison wants revenge and has taken his wife. Brock, however, doesn't want a thing to do with Sammy Starling, but he has no choice but to take the case because of orders from his superiors. So Brock & Kathy go along with the case, but Eva turns up dead, with only her head left at Sammy's house for proof. After beginning to conduct their investigation, Brock & Kolla realize that there's more here than meets the eye.
I LOVE this author!!! Sticks to the case & the clues; puts in enough red herrings and enough suspects to make me (a seasoned mystery reader vet) very happy and eager to read on. Definitely highly recommended to other British murder mystery fans!
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The Chalon Heads
