The Square of Revenge: An Inspector Van In Mystery Paperback – May 15, 2014

I think I would enjoy any book about Walloons and crime and did enjoy this one.Its strengths included:1. Interesting story line.2. Terrific Bruges color and imagery. It is a lovely place.3. Some interesting characters.Its flaws include:1. Strange language, particularly strange verbs, particularly in the interplay between Van In, the lead detective and the deputy prosecutor. They "sneer" at each other and become angry at each other entirely too much to be believable.2. There is a subplot about Belgian politics that got started then became forgotten. Why was it there?3. The lead character, Pieter Van In, was portrayed as a detective searching for self actualization by having a big case. He goes after this case with lots of skill and it was not credible that his skill fell from the sky. His motives were also unclear. He was always failing to call his superiors and we never knew why. He was consistently having excess alcohol in inappropriate places (in the morning at the house of a suspect, for example). He apparently had some skill to get to where he was and we did not learn why a person who "got along" to Assistant Commissioner (not by solving big crimes, since this is his first) now becomes rebellious and taunting of his supervisors. There was no reason for him to care about the first crime being swept under the rug by the person who was harmed by it.4. The deputy prosecutor was set up as a politically ambitious manipulator with ties to the political figures. She then turns into an attractive side kick who likes to drive fast, and with sirens. We never learned what happened to the "young woman on the professional make" that started the story. She gets him started on the trail after the first crime by offering him professional reward and then we learn nothing more on this subject.5. The plot had twists and turns that could have been dealt with better. The Templar angle was poorly explained. Why the bad guy left a false trail was poorly explained. The bad guy supposed plotted his crimes in order to confuse, apparently because he was a mathematician. His subterfuge was interesting but not mathematic in any way I could discern. Why the bad guys wanted to ruin their victim in the particular way that they chose made no sense and was not explained.6. The ending did not follow from what we had learned along the way. For example, there is a security code in the first crime and there is a short list of people who have it. In the ending, the person who gave the bad guys this code was not on the list and it is not explained how this person got the code. This IMHO is sloppy plotting.

Assistant Commissioner Pieter Van In of the Bruges police force is past forty, divorced, squeezed by alimony payments and overextended on his mortgage. He smokes "like a nineteenth-century chimney" and drinks "like a Hummer in overdrive." Women make him nervous.Especially the new Deputy Public Prosecutor, a hot young feminist in mini skirts, ambitious and aggressive, who wants to be his partner in a highly political investigation. Hannelore Martens loves to drive cop cars at breakneck speed with sirens wailing.A series of crimes and malicious act are directed at the Degroof family. Degroof senior is a rich and powerful man, a key supporter of right-wing politicians who has Van In's boss and most of Bruges in his pocket. Van In suspects that the criminals are motivated by revenge. What has Degroof done in his past to deserve this persecution?The storyline is riveting, thanks to the bizarre nature of the crimes, the sizzling attraction between Van In and Martens, the quirky personalities of the supporting cops, and the shocking revelations that emerge about Degroof.Van In is a refreshing hero, clever at his job, but full of personal conflicts. It's quite amusing watching him sweat while interviewing a woman wearing only a bikini bottom. There are lots of humorous moments in the book. The translation must be very good to capture the humor so well.Figaro compared Pieter Aspe to Georges Simenon, and I can see why. He shares Simenon's ability to evoke a sense of place with few words. He's subtly funny. And his detective is both cerebral and a man of appetites. But Aspe is more willing than Simenon to challenge the reader with esoteric elements.I just hope Pieter Aspe will be as prolific as Simenon. I have already pre-ordered the next book in the series, The Midas Murders.

This square is more of triangleBruges hardly seems like the stage for one of the greatest acts of cultural terrorism in peacetime, and it turns out not to be, instead a team of two highly proficient kidnappers are using a square in Bruges as the scene of a get-even plan that confounds Commissioner Pieter Van In and his unofficial partner Hannelore Martens a Deputy Public Prosecutor. What started out as a crazy jewel heist involving a prestigious family turns into a revenge story that pits Van In against the revengers and their target, the head of the Degroof family who has a 'past' that Van In has to cope with as he tries to solve the kidnapping under a 48 hour deadline.I hadn't read any of the earlier Van In books, but author Pieter Aspe has me hooked on this beer drinking, cigarette smoking policeman who has an eye for beautiful women. Locating him in Bruges, an ancient and lovely city in a country of stolid, non-humorous burghers who speak a number of languages makes for a delightful background for this "Sherlockian" detective. I'll look for more of him

This is book 1 in the Van In series. Pieter Van In is a police commissioner in Bruges, Belgium. I previously read one of the books in this series and enjoyed it enough that I purchased book one in the series. Pieter is divorced and in a personal slump. He is an excellent detective and is assigned a puzzling jewellery case, where the jewelry was destroyed instead of stolen. The title gives the motive. There are ugly family secrets and a surprise ending. There is some romance in this book. The translation is excellent.One quote: "Memory is a complex labyrinth, a living mishmash of memories, some registered, others wandering loss until they find a home."

Great price;quick shipping;enjoyable story -well read.

As a regular visitor to Bruges I have been waiting for the translation of this book.I wasn't disappointed.It wasn't until the very last page that the twist in the story was revealed.Inspector Van In and his colleages entertained throughout what was an extremely good detective story.Anyone who enjoyed French Maigret or Dutch Van der Valk will enjoy Belgium's Van In.I can't wait for the translation of the next book and would urge any TV producer to consider a TV version of this.Bruges,at the moment seems to be enjoying popularity with film crews [In Bruges,the White Queen]and would lend a beautiful backdrop for a detective series.I believe many of Aspe's books have already been televised for flemish TV so maybe BBC 4 might consider those for Saturday night's 9pm slot.

Ruigoord

Read partly in Bruges very entertaining.