Generally a good thriller, but ...
Too many themes, even if they are there to provide "deep background".
We are introduced to racial issues, various degrees of family secrets, domestic violence, drug and prostitution issues in Amsterdam and a lot more.
All boiled down to a hardened businessman offering expensive consultancy services if you are in need af a hostile take over of your closest competitor; meet Peter de Boer.
Naturally such work need a dark background, and it would be hard to find a darker one.
As the plot(s) unfolds, enter Nicky, the beautiful, and intelligent Indonesian girl with serious family issues, who will eventually save the day and run away with the prince.
I´m not trying to spoil the reading experience to anyone, that obvious is it where that part of the story is moving.
A cousin and an aunt, a some-time mistress and a few not too trusty employees.
The ones that have been mutilated by the tough business methods play there part too, not to mention the Iraqi intelligence freelancers.
Ooh, CIA is there too.
The novel draws on the circumstances of The Bijlmermeer Crash of October 4th 1992, which even today are well hidden from prying public eyes.
This part of the plot is not entirely unlikely, and it could from my point of view have been utilized to much better effect had some of the 600 pages been set aside for it.
We are provided with unnecessary details and sideplots in order to keep the story going on.
My overall conclusion, the author works too hard on making every tiny bit of the story plausible, and make a happy ending.
Read in Danish
Dutch and German translations available.