Barry Maitland

Barry Maitland (born 1941) is an acclaimed Scottish-born Australian crime novelist, academic, and former architect whose deep understanding of urban design and spatial history heavily informs his highly atmospheric mystery thrillers. Born in Paisley, Scotland, and raised in London, he studied architecture at Cambridge University and taught urban design at the University of Sheffield before relocating to Australia in 1984 to serve as the Head of the Architecture School at the University of Newcastle. Following a devastating 1990 Newcastle earthquake that nearly claimed his wife's life, Maitland began channeling his creative energy into fiction, vaulting to literary prominence with his 1994 debut novel, The Marx Sisters. The book was nominated for the John Creasey Award for Best First Novel and launched his internationally bestselling, 14-novel Brock and Kolla police procedural series. This celebrated London-set series follows the intricate cases of Scotland Yard detectives David Brock and Kathy Kolla, concluding with his 2021 art-forgery masterpiece, The Russian Wife. A highly versatile author, Maitland has also written the Australian-set standalone thriller Bright Air and the hard-boiled Sydney-based Belltree Trilogy, earning major genre accolades including the inaugural Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction.