Nicolas Freeling
A woman, Elsa, is brutally murdered in her Amsterdam apartment. Her ex-lover, Martin, is seen outside the building around the time of the crime. The witness who saw him? A policeman.
It looks like a straightforward case—but police inspector Van der Valk is not convinced. Despite all the evidence—and...
3) Tsing-Boum
Van der Valk is intrigued. It isn't everyday that a quiet housewife is machine gunned down at lunchtime in a block of flats. But the body isn't discovered until hours later, and by that time, the killer's trail is already getting cold. Van der Valk is left with more than one problem posed by the death of Esther Marx. For not only does she leave behind her a tide of mystery, but also a young daughter, in desperate need of care. Taking little Ruth
...Two bullets put to rest that incurable curiosity.
Commissaire Van der Valk, appointed to his new position after surviving a bullet through the leg, is getting rather bored of his new quiet life in the town of Lisse. Whilst getting home in time for dinner and golf at the weekends is all well and good, a little excitement wouldn't go amiss. So when a local man is found dead in suspicious circumstances, Van der Valk is on the case in a trice.
Getting to know the local riding school's characters
...Since setting up shop in Strasbourg with her new husband, Arlette, widow to the notorious Van der Valk, has garnered something of a name for herself. Getting shot at, kidnapped and blackmailed seem to have simply become a part of daily life. Being taken under the wing of the local police commissioner has come in handy—especially when it came to the gun license—but being connected to the police can be dangerous.
When Arlette returns
...7) The Widow
After the death of her notorious husband Van der Valk, Arlette has had to make a new life for herself, with a new city, new job, and now a new man. But being married to a detective for twenty years has left its mark, and the pull of her late husband's work draws her in. Her new husband, Arthur, has the remarkable idea that Arlette should go into helping people professionally, and her very own advice bureau is born. At first the expected battered
...Van der Valk is on the case again as a mysterious letter is unearthed alluding to the murder of a man named Cabestan. In the letter, the murderer is named but van der Valk must find out first who this mysterious letter-writer is. What transpires is a tale of deception and adultery as the rich Carl Merckel, the managing director of the Lutz Brothers merchant bank, lays an accusation of cold blooded homicide of which, he claims, his wife had no part
...A respectable looking elderly man is stabbed in a busy street, and, despite being surrounded by people, no one seems to have seen anything. Van der Valk soon discovers that the victim was more of a rogue than he at first appeared, and is dragged into a world of dodgy deals and beautiful women. With five marriages under his belt and four beautiful daughters living in Ireland, Van der Valk feels strongly that Mr Martinez's death is somehow connected
...10) Double-Barrel
Two women had committed suicide, and a third had had to be led gently away by men in white coats. There had been an outbreak of anonymous letters. . .That was not so very much. But there was something more, intangible but perceptible.'
And Inspector Van der Valk changes his mind about the routine nature of his mission to Drente. What lies behind the small-town immoralities, eaves-dropping, hysteria? Could he by chance have stumbled upon one of
...This was the end of the story that had started 'Once upon a time, in a rainy country, there was a king...' The end had not happened in a rainy country, but on a bone-dry Spanish hillside, three hundred metres from where Van der Valk had left a lot of blood, some splintered bone, a few fragments of gut, and a ten-seventy-five Mauser rifle bullet. No one had broken any laws. But a handsome, middle-aged millionaire had disappeared with a naked girl.
...