The bound proofs of Babel come with a quotation from the Times Literary Supplement: "Unflagging, lively and amusing....full of zest and confidence." I can only wonder if those comments crept onto the cover by mistake, because none apply to this novel. I haven't read Silvermeadow - maybe that was better - but this....It's not lively, it's not amusing, and it flags (whatever that means) like some limp-wristed pennant on a windless day. Maybe if I'd read Silvermeadow I'd know the two main characters better, and enjoy the reunion. But I haven't and so I know very little about them – nor could get close to them. DS Kathy Kolla is, from a brief description by a subsidiary character, a glacial blonde; DCI Brock is a shadowy, undescribed figure - middle-aged, dark haired....and that's about as much as the reader gets to know. Nor much else about their relationship. Or anything else!

The novel is set in London, mainly the East End, but whereas authors like John Harvey and Ian Rankin establish definite, true locations, that tell you about the streets they're walking down, Barry Maitland leaves you wondering. As does the plot. An ageing, embittered philosopher working at the University of Central London is killed by a student, for no obvious reason. Brock and Kolla (she's persauded out of sick leave after whatever happened to her in Silvermeadow) take on the investigation, which points to Islamic extremists, or worse. There's a subplot about Asian arranged marriages, and European interference in the Far to Middle East, and a sting in the tail that I won't describe in case you bother to read this. It would spoil it: because it's about the only original thing in the book. And then not very.

Sorry, but I just didn't like this. I found it boring; and there are so many good crime novels around I wonder why this was published. Who knows? People buy Jeffrey Archer - so there's no accounting for taste.