Gun Before Butter

Van der Valk #3

by Nicolas Freeling

Inspector Van der Valk's investigation of an apparently senseless slaying in Amsterdam leads him to France and Belgium

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Procedural, Mystery Thriller, British Literature, Detective

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Nicolas Freeling born Nicolas Davidson, (March 3, 1927 - July 20, 2003) was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels which were adapted for transmission on the British ITV network by Thames Television during the 1970s.

Freeling was born in London, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at Grandfontaine to the west of Strasbourg. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of stealing some food.[citation needed]

Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association, and France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

From Wikipedia

Series:
* Van Der Valk
* Henri Castang

Reviews

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m very happy that Penguin is re-releasing classics from its 1960s green cover crime series, and that this Nicholas Freeling is amongst them. Could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it in the library.

Freeling was a master at drawing character and place, and much of this book is give over to establishing character and illuminating place. The story itself wobbled a bit in my view, especially as the threads came together near the end, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

We found ourselves in the Kindle English Mystery Group reading a Ruth Rendall mystery from 1970 & I began recalling what I was reading when young. I remembered reading a lot of Nicholas Freeling in my early 20s, that Gun Before Butter was my favourite, & that it featured a love affair between a butter smuggler on the Dutch border & a young woman who despite an upper class upbringing despised the Dutch bourgeoisie. She got a working class job & lived on bread with olive oil, & she thought the butter smuggler like a sea captain straight out of a Joseph Conrad novel. Had try it again to find out if was as good as I'd thought half a century ago - too bad we can't do that with lovers or wines. The book's long out of print but I managed to pick up a paperback from 1982 from a bookseller in Montana with the marvellous name Annysgranny (yes, this is a free plug), & yes, Gun Before Butter is even better than I ever imagined. It tells a very romantic & deeply moving love story with an irresistibly attractive heroine, & features a favorite theme of mine closely intertwined with the tragic denouement.

Lucienne easily holds her own in the company of my current favourites, Cassie Maddox, Lacey Flint, Beth Cassidy, Diana Quigley & Thea Atwell. If she is not quite utterly fearless, she is certainly ready to cast her fate to the winds. She can also kick arse & like Diana Quigley, wield a knife, as well as having great taste in food & art. And she is a woman of great integrity who cannot endure falsity or betrayal.

But I'd forgotten that our butter smuggler has two different identities, a theme I find fascinating, as in Tana French's The Likeness with Cassie Maddox/Lexie Madison. In Holland, where he starts off the mystery by getting murdered, the smuggler is Mr. Stam, a retired army officer who spends a lot of time at an isolated hunting lodge in the forest near the Belgian border & travels about on a BMW motorcycle searching for good places to fish and getting to know all the locals. Strangely, his fishing gear is unused. But then we find that he also is a Belgian hotel owner named Gerard de Winter, married - it's very much a marriage of convenience - to a forty-something woman named Solange, who manages the hotel whilst he's away, which is most of the time.

Stam & Lucienne have a beautiful love affair till she finds out that her lover has another identity. Unfortunately the Conradian hero has a sleazy double in de Winter.

As I often confess, I don't care much anymore about 'solving' the mystery; what matters to me now are the relationships and the moral lessons we draw from them. The lesson I draw from Gun Before Butter is that love & good intentions are not enough, that relationships demand absolute honesty & total selflessness, & where one of the parties lacks them, Nemesis soon appears in their place.

So now I return to reading contemporary fiction, but cheered knowing that there are some pleasures in life even better the second time around & half a century later. Oh, & I also still love a whole-grain baguette slathered with olive oil.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long before Scandinavian Noir was a thing (yes, I know that, as they are Dutch, this series are not scandianavian) there were a few people writing the books that were arguably leading down the path toward this genera that became a thing in the 2000's. I think that Nicolas Freeling's three books with the main character of eccentric inspector Van der Valk are definately ahead of his time, and leading the way.

Beautiful gently cruel writing is the most delightful part of these books, and I think that Gun before Butter is a perfect book of it's type. A man has been stabbed in Amsterdam, a strangely anonymous man, who had no reason to be there and left no clues about where he came from or who he was.Using his instinct for humanity, inspector Van der Valk wends his way through the strange labyrinths of identities and motivations to find a startling conclusion.

It is the writing and the descriptions that win here, as much as the deft plot with it's delicate twists. Freeling's main character disparages the stultifying customs and culture of Amsterdam and the Dutch phlegmatic character. At the same time he describes it with such vividness that one wants to go and see for one's self. Of course, as this was written in the 1960's, that culture that is described no longer exists, but it is so clearly and darkly written that I feel as though I was there.

Anyhow, brilliant crime fiction that has dated - it terms of people, attitudes and beliefs -amazingly little. The attitudes of the characters are so contemporary in so many ways, that it could well have been written now as historical fiction. The writing is a bit dated; it is slow, calm and rich is descriptive power.It makes no effort to shock at all, it merely allows the story to come to a slow boil with a charmingly dark ending.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucienne Englebert, a protagonist of Nicolas Freeling's "Gun Before Butter" (1963) is as unforgettable a character as the much more recent Lisbeth Salander of Stieg Larsson's famous "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Both are strong. compelling, complex, and very well written female characters. I read Mr. Freeling's book for the first time in the early 1970s, and ranked it then among masterpieces of the crime genre, along Rex Stout's "Murder by the Book" and Sjowall/Wahloo's "The Laughing Policeman". I have just finished re-reading the novel, and my opinion has not changed; it is indeed a masterpiece of the genre, and my only problem is whether to award it four or five stars.

Inspector Van der Valk, probably my most favorite of all fiction detectives, a nonconformist policeman, critical of Dutch stolidity, provincialism, and isolationism, and a "queer character" overall, often does not do his police work by the book. He meets Lucienne for the first time at the scene of an auto accident where her father dies. Van der Valk is investigating a murder that happened in Amsterdam but which also has connections to Germany and Belgium.

Mr. Freeling's observations of European cities and people are phenomenally sharp. As in all his novels, he masterfully captures the essence of Europeanness (were he alive, he would be very happy about the current state of the EU) and satirizes the stereotypes about European nations. (He also makes jokes about the French, which is always a plus in my book, just kidding...) The passage where Lucienne judges her customers based on the look in their eyes exhibits unusual psychological depth. The conversations between Lucienne and her admirers ring true and they help elevate this mystery book to a first-class literary status.

The ending is astounding, but understandable upon reflection. Unfortunately, in the so-called real life there are very few policemen of Van der Valk's caliber. Probably none.

Wonderful title, believable characters, great writing, engrossing mystery. I decided to round my rating up. Of course, "Gun Before Butter" is not exactly in the same class as Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", Coetzee's "Disgrace", or Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49", but within its genre, it would be very hard to find a better novel.

Four and a half stars.

[Graeme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that I bought Gun Before Butter, along with another Van der Valk novel, Over the High Side, from an opportunity shop on Melbourne's Toorak Road in about 1976. It remains one of my favorite books, and a masterpiece in my opinion. Inspector Van der Valk, of the Amsterdam Police, is an intelligent, gentle humanist who loves his wife and is not an alcoholic. What a relief. The fine nuances of Freeling's story make it emotionally rewarding, and the plot, though it has some complexity, is entirely plausible and never obtrusive. Freeling (born Nicolas Davidson) was a peripatetic Englishman, and the love of his adopted European home comes through in so many precious details of place and character. My copy has a price of 5 shillings and sixpence on the cover.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like Lucienne as much as his other female characters, none of whom are much to write home about. Reading late sixties detective fiction, you realize just how much feminism has improved the world in the last forty years, and just how miserable relations between men and women were before.

[Raquel Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como é possível eu não conhecer ainda este autor?
Da escola britânica, mas o inspector Van der Valk é Holandês, opera em Amesterdão e a trama divide-se entre Holanda, Bélgica e Holanda.
Do melhor do género que tenho lido ultimamente.

[Helena Brito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma agradável surpresa! Encontrei este livro por mero acaso numa secção de livros em 2ª mão numa feira do livro. Não conhecia o título nem o autor, mas por algum motivo reparei nele e vi que se tratava de um romance policial. Por ser dos géneros literários que mais aprecio, foi o suficiente para decidir comprá-lo. Não desiludiu! Sem muito suspense, a história evolui com um bom ritmo, os diálogos são agradáveis e o inspetor Van der Valk consegue rapidamente conquistar a nossa simpatia.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good radio play

[Jordi Morata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si voleu sentir parlar malament dels holandesos, aquest és el llibre. Una sorpresa agradable

[Jason Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb crime and love story that breaks most of the rules and wins. Lucienne, the cool and autonomous daughter of a famous conductor, is SO much more interesting than her repellent descendant, the girl with the dragon tattoo.

[Pippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written 'European' novel. Left a slightly sad feeling, but worth reading. It is as much about character and place as it is about crime. Clues are given but detection is mainly intuitive and a bit unreal.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charmingly old school - makes the 70s seem a long way off... the birth of the Common Market, memories of WW2 still fresh, cops routinely on the take, wives who cook.

[L'atelier de Litote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je suis partie à la découverte d’un polar d’une autre époque, l���action se situe dans las années 60. Mais tout nous ramène à cette époque, le charme désuet du vocabulaire, les frontières entre les pays de l’UE qui n’existent plus de nos jours. Une lecture différente de celle des polars actuels, et cela fait du bien, cette lenteur, cette facilité à prendre son temps, des descriptions soignées entre Pays bas et Belgique ainsi que des personnages marqués. L’auteur pose ses personnages et nous donne un aperçu des lieux avant de lancer son intrigue, nous obligeant ainsi à la patience. Tout cela crée une ambiance très particulière que l’on peu rapprocher de l’écriture de Simenon avec son célèbre Maigret. L’inspecteur Van der Valk est policier à Amsterdam, il va rencontrer Lucienne Engelbert pour la première fois, lors de l’accident qui coute la vie à son père. On apprend à connaître et à apprécier cet inspecteur anticonformiste, qui sait observer et s’imprégner des particularités de la victime. L’intrigue va alors commencer par la découverte d’une Mercedes blanche abandonnée dans la rue en face d’une maison où un corps « muet » attend notre inspecteur, à lui de découvrir son identité. Il sera à nouveau face à la belle et indomptable Lucienne. Ce personnage féminin est attrayant, elle supporte mal la bourgeoisie néerlandaise, c’est une femme intègre qui ne supporte pas la trahison et le mensonge. En suivant son instinct, l’inspecteur va devoir se rendre en Belgique pour déjouer un trafic surprenant. C’est un personnage dont j’ai aimé la curiosité, la ténacité et le côté bon vivant. Je ne m’attendais pas à découvrir en plus d’une intrigue policière, une histoire d’amour. Toutes les pistes finiront par se rejoindre dans un final sombre et inattendu. Bonne lecture.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Van der Valk first meets Lucienne Englebert when she is a teenager, involved in an auto accident which kills her father, a famous orchestra conductor. Later she reappears, a young woman involved in a disturbance with a group of young Italian men. Still later, she is working as an auto mechanic and accused of theft. Her employer and Van der Valk don’t want to press charges, but she insists on paying the penalty.
Some time later, a glamorous white Mercedes is abandoned on a quiet Amsterdam street – parked across the median with the keys in it. An investigation of nearby dwellings reveals a dead man, stabbed, identity unknown, in a prosperous but sparsely furnished apartment. The one unique object of value in the apartment is a painting of an Amsterdam scene by a noted artist. Van der Valk keeps mooching around, finds a name for the dead man, Stam, finds he has been spending leisure time at a remote fishing cabin owned by the local baron. Pleasant fellow, no enemies, no reason for anyone to stab him, apparently. More mooching around, Stam has another identity. He is a Belgian hotelier named deWinter, married, prosperous, no enemies, but a likely butter smuggler across the Dutch Belgian border. So perhaps a falling out among thieves.
Van der Valk is one of my favorite fictional detectives, curious, persistent, whimsical, intuitive, happily married, fond of eating and drinking well. He is frequently at odds with his supervisors because of his unconventional approach, viewing typically Dutch conservative Calvinist values with a mixture of cynicism and affection.
This book has a well developed story line – more of a plot than some of the others in the series. In the end it is more of a love story than a crime story, and one with an unhappy ending. It also has some stunningly good descriptive writing. The picture of the antique shop cum gallery where he is looking for information about the painting was so vividly evocative I went back and reread it three times. The nuanced descriptions of the minuscule differences on either side of the porous Dutch/Belgian border are exceptional.

[Carles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comença la novel·la explicant-nos una cas menor. A partir del crim, la narració se’m ha fet absolutament fascinant.

L’autor demostra ser un profund coneixedor d’aquesta part d’Europa; no només la geografia física ―llegia i buscava els llocs al Google Maps― també humana; els costums i caràcter dels diferents països. Quan els personatges parlen de música, pintura, literatura, història, gastronomia... fa tota la impressió que són temes estimats per l'autor.
Els perfectes diàlegs, reforçant els diferents caràcters.
Els escenaris i situacions ... tot meravellosament retratat.
La trama absorbent ens fa passar pàgines amb avidesa.

El nostre heroi ―un perspicaç inspector incomprès per el sistema, de tornada de tot i no de la corda dels caps― em recordava Wallander, del gran Henning Mankell. I quan m’he topat amb aquest fragment, on inclou la mirada de les dones... m’ha recordat “La falsa pista” o “La cinquena dona”.

Mentalment, es va treure el barret en honor del senyor Stam, l’home superminuciós. Són detalls que mai no s’escapen a les dones, però ell no se n’havia adonat. Prosseguí, amb veu encara més suau:
―Això té una explicació. I ben curiosa...

És una novel·la sobre les coincidències, l’atzar, les casualitats.
“...si no hagués passat això...?”, "...si en comptes d’haver anat per aquí, hagués anat per allà...?”

A poques pàgines del final, elucubrava amb quin desenllaç enginyós ens regalaria l’autor, tenint en compte les possibilitats que s’obrien fruit de la trama tan fascinant.
Ara, un cop acabada la lectura i amb la ment reposada, penso que el final és el que es correspon amb el to de la novel·la.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai été positivement surprise par cette enquête policière ! Elle était très agréable ! C'est le titre qui m'a attiré en tant que belge. Ce n'est d'habitude pas mon style de lecture mais je suis contente d'être sortie de ma zone de confort.

L'histoire se passe entre les Pays-Bas et la Belgique. De nombreuses villes belges et hollandaises sont énoncés. Il y a donc quelques lieux en néerlandais. Il y a quelques descriptions. Il y a 2 personnages principaux dans cette histoire : l'inspecteur et Lucienne Engelbert. L'inspecteur a fait la rencontre de cette jeune femme en l'aidant lors d'un accident de voiture.

On suit l'enquête de l'inspecteur Van Der Valk. Son enquête démarre lorsqu'il est intrigué par une Mercedes blanche. De là, découle tout un mystère que l'inspecteur veut à tout prix découvrir.

Alors oui le langage est un peu vieillot car le livre a été écrit dans les années 1960. Mais c'est tout de même une belle lecture qui peut se lire en 2021. Je suis contente d'avoir lu ce livre!! Et je le recommande si vous aimez les enquêtes policières.

[Isabelle Zazaboum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un polar réédité des années 60 avec un enquêteur hollandais à la sauce Maigret, écrit par un anglais ! Éclectique à souhait d’autant plus qu’une partie de l’enquête se passe aussi en Belgique et en Allemagne !

Van der Valk est un policier atypique assez difficile à mettre dans une case et laissé en marge par ses collègues, ce qui ne l’empêche pas d’être efficace ! Tout doucement le matin et pas trop vite le soir mais comme un limier il s’accroche à un fil et le déroule jusqu’à la résolution de l’enquête !

Il faut un petit temps d’adaptation pour apprécier l’enquêteur et l’écriture et j’ai fini par goûter ses pensées caustiques et humoristiques sur les mœurs des différents pays !

Pas de violence gratuite, pas d’hémoglobine à outrance, beaucoup de psychologie, de ressentis, de sentiments et pas de condamnation à priori alors que je sujet est la contrebande et qu’après-guerre l’on sait ce que cela induit !

Je vais avoir du plaisir à lire la suite des enquêtes de l’inspecteur Van der Valk au petit goût vintage !

#frontierebelge #NetGalleyFrance

[Christopher Rush · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Mr. Freeling, you have won an award!"
"Which one, Most Forgotten Supporting Family Cast?"
"No, Most Wasted Final 1/3 Of a Book on a Meaningless Flashback of How the Victim Met the Culprit."
"Wonderful - that's what I was going for."
-
It's hard to tell if this is worse than the first two. It takes the worst of both but just before you try to convince yourself the first two were better you remember how bad they were so you then doubt your own ability to judge if these are good or not.

So much potential for clever twists at the end, but none of them occur. Instead, Freeling introduces two new characters in the book, and surprise surprise, one of them is a murder victim. Guess what role the other character plays? Worse, the tone throughout is none of it matters - the discovery of the body is accidental, the investigation is mostly coincidence, Van der Valk's demeanor is somehow even less interested than the previous one, and of course, in the end, he doesn't feel like doing his job and lets the whole thing effectively drop. Why did he write this?

[John Hardy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trying some authors I am not familiar with, I was attracted to this Van der Valk novel, having seen the name on TV. Unfortunately, it is not my cup of tea. Although it is a crime novel with a police officer investigating, it isn't a police procedural. VdV seems to do pretty much whatever he wants to. His boss doesn't hold him in high regard, but apparently he gets results, as this is #3 in the series.
A person of interest happens to be an attractive young woman and VdV seems to be overly taken with her. Not very professional, I must say.
The prose plods along (get it?) with a few french and italian words thrown in - and some out of place british slang (the author was british).
At the point where VdV allowed a POI to hit him without trying to duck or fight back, I lost interest.
At 280 paperback pages it dragged on with unbelievable nonsense. The only point of interest was learning a bit about butter smuggling between Belgium and Holland.
I've done my bit for the project, and now consign Nicholas Freeling and VdV to the reject bin.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another example of how Freeling's unique and occasionally cranky style, combined with his ability to write engagingly about different characters, make many of his books rewarding even when they are arguably flawed. Found this one morally unsatisfying and unusually dependent on coincidences. The main characters often feel stretched in the way they live and talk. But it's still an absorbing read. It also amusingly turns on a quintessential European crime while delivering plenty of nicely drawn small sketches of the landscape and culture of The Netherlands and Belgium.
Goodreads does not show the cover of the 1987 Penguin printing that I read. It is literally flashy, and as such looks like an artifact from the somewhat earlier era of glam rock.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't so much a "who done it" so much as a "why'd she do it" sort of mystery. I liked the back and forth between Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany, as the smuggling operation that forms the backdrop of the story takes place, but I confess that I didn't find the story line gripped me very much, probably because I read this over a series of evenings right before going to sleep, but also because Van der Valk more or less drops out about halfway through, only to reappear late in the novel. I know I was supposed to understand the alure of Lucienne, but it was pretty much lost on me. Perhaps I slept through it. I did find the idea of butter smuggling rather amusing at first, but apparently those Dutch and Belgian dairy farmers take this stuff pretty seriously!

[Heikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gun Before Butter by Nicolas Freeling is a gripping crime novel featuring Dutch detective Piet Van der Valk. The story intertwines Van der Valk’s investigation of a murder with his encounters with Lucienne Engelbert, a troubled young woman. Lucienne’s life, marked by her father’s death and brushes with crime, repeatedly intersects with the inspector’s work. The murder case reveals a web of double identities and black-market dealings, centering on a butter smuggler with hidden lives. Freeling’s nuanced writing blends mystery, psychological depth, and moral dilemmas, culminating in a poignant yet grim love story and an unconventional resolution

[Sara Gerot · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters in this book are truly complicated. I had no idea what the title meant and loved the surprise of finding out where it came from. The setting of the book trailing across country lines and back again was completely new to me. I had my google translate app open for most of the book because some of the lines were too good to miss. The inclusion of these other languages added to texture of the book. So much fun I'll have to read more in the series wherever I can get my hands on a copy. I was lucky enough to be given a copy of the '82!

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very “old school” writing style, at least for me. The story is most intriguing.

[Margarida · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

[Vítor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muitas observações curiosas sobre a Bélgica e Holanda do pós guerra. Os personagens estão bem desenvolvidos, mas a ação não é nada convincente e a investigação é toda feita de instinto e acasos.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicolas Freeling (March 3, 1927 - July 20, 2003), was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the van der Valk series of detective novels. Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association, and France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

Obviously clever and a good setter of the scene, he has psychological insight and a social conscience.
Many coincidences, but good atmosphere and a subtle way with a complex detective Van de Valk. I'll read more.

I had never heard the phrase 'Gun Before Butter' before and I thought it would be 'Guns' before Butter' signifying some dastardly anti-social, personally aggrandizing character or group. Or a country that chooses weapons before food for its people which is what it turns out to mean (mostly) But its 'Guns' on Wikipedia and 'Gun' here.
(Thought you'd be dying to know that.)

[Sue Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable police procedural written by an Englishman but set in Holland, with careful attention paid to institutional accuracy. A badly parked Mercedes in a posh Amsterdam street leads to the discovery of an unidentified dead male in an otherwise unoccupied posh house. It's odd, difficult, there are no leads, but that's why the unconventional, imaginative Inspector Van der Valk keeps his job. Almost a 4, but while I'll certainly take the opportunity to read more Freeling, I don't think I'd feel compelled to re-read this.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exploring the border between Holland and Belgium is routine to smugglers and law enforcement, and to an investigator from Amsterdam in this Van der Valk Mystery. The differences between being a native of Belgium and of Holland are compared and contrasted as the crime investigation unfolds. I feel a little bit closer to understanding subtle differences between these neighboring countries.