May 4, 2015
The skeleton unearthed by young Tine Vermast outside her family’s Bruges farmhouse plunges Asst. Commissioner Pieter Van In into what proves to be a decades-old cesspool of prostitution, political corruption, and worse in Belgian author Aspe’s suspenseful but disturbing puzzler, the third in the series to be translated into English. Ironically, the start of the investigation finds the acerbic alcoholic in far better form than his previous appearance (2013’s The Midas Murders), seemingly mellowing in conjugal bliss with his blossoming and pregnant bride, deputy prosecutor Hannelore Martens. But it’s hard for either of them to preserve that honeymoon glow when the not-so-cold case leads to a fresh corpse, then another—and puts one of Van In’s police colleagues in grave danger. Spiking his dark, intricately plotted tale with flashes of humor, the author reminds readers why the quirky Van In chronicles have sold more than one million copies in Europe alone.