Book Review: From Bruges with Love by Pieter Aspe

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge,from Open Road Media via Netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it


                                  To round out our Mystery Thursday, I have a foreign entry!

From Bruges with Love cover

Synopsis:

Behind the glamorous facade of elite Belgian society lies a seedy world unseen by the public eye—but nothing stays hidden forever 

Inspector Pieter Van In is begrudgingly finishing up a healthy lunch when he hears the news: While restoring their farmhouse, the Vermasts have found a skeleton in the backyard. Van In, who happens to be married to the deputy public prosecutor, is determined to solve the case in double-quick time and squeeze in one last vacation before the birth of his first child.

But this murder is trickier than it looks, and Van In soon finds himself in murky waters. The Vermasts' land belonged to the most prominent businessman in West Flanders before it was suddenly handed over to a right-wing charity. The heavily endowed foundation appears to have no expenditures or investments. So who's financing it—and why?

Before he knows it, Van In finds himself in the middle of a complex web—one that involves high-level officials, local law enforcement, and common thugs. The harder he tries to unravel the thread, the more difficult it becomes to uncover the secrets that the charity's benefactors are trying to hide. This time Van In will have to risk lives to find out the truth.

Review:

The Belgian detective returns! this book picks up after The Square of Revenge, but the previous book is not required reading for this one. Van In is somewhat of an acquired taste, like Agatha Christie Poirot. you either love him, or not. Once again the mystery at hand has multiple layers that lead van in, and the reader, if different directions, only to bring them back around to the issue at hand. What seems unsolvable always has basic human emotions at its beginning. How Van In comes to the truth is always an intellectual read and Doyle has done an excellent job in bringing Ape's nuances to life in the translated book. once you start on the series, you;ll get hooked like I did! So take an at home vacation to Belgium with this book!

And now a clip with Pieter explaining about his writing!



About the Author

Pieter Aspe is the author of a multi-volume detective series starring Inspector Van In, which has produced multiple bestsellers in Europe. Aspe lives in Bruges, Belgium, and is one of the most popular contemporary writers in the Flemish language. His novels have now sold over three million copies in Europe alone. 

About the Translator:

Brian Doyle was born in Scotland in 1956 and is currently a professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium. In addition to teaching, he has translated a wide variety of books from Dutch and Flemish into English. In addition to the Pieter Van In Mysteries, his recent book projects include Jef Geeraerts’s The Public Prosecutor (2009), Jacqueline van Maarsen’sI nheriting Anne Frank (2010), Christiaan Weijts’s The Window Dresser (2009), Tessa de Loo’s The Book of Doubt (2011), Paul Glaser’s Dancing with the Enemy (2013), and Bob Van Laerhoven’s Baudelaire’s Revenge (2014). He also translates poetry and literary nonfiction.

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