The Pieter Van In Mysteries: The Square of Revenge, The Midas Murders, From Bruges with Love, and The Fourth Figure

by Pieter Aspe

Four gripping police procedurals set in Bruges, starring “a brusque cop with every bad habit you can think of” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review). Featuring the bad-tempered, libidinous, alcoholic but skilled police investigator Deputy Commissioner Pieter Van In, these four gritty crime novels from a #1 international bestselling author reveal the darker side of the beautiful Belgian city of Bruges.  The Square of The perpetrators who broke into an elite jewelry store in Bruges stole nothing, but dissolved a fortune in priceless gems in jars of powerful acid—a perplexing crime that entangles Deputy Commissioner Pieter Van In and his beautiful colleague, assistant district attorney Hannelore Martens, in a wealthy family’s darkest, deadliest secrets.  The Midas Two suspicious deaths and an explosion at a popular tourist site lead Van In and Martens into the heart of a terrorist nightmare that could leave their beloved Bruges in ruins.  From Bruges with The discovery of a thirty-year-old skeleton during the restoration of a farmhouse pits Van In against high-level Belgian officials determined to prevent the detective from digging too deeply into the house’s sordid and terrible past.  The Fourth In this novel, nominated for a Hercule Poirot Award, Deputy Commissioner Van In’s investigation of a young woman’s bizarre death is a prelude to a massacre, and it places him in the rifle sights of a sinister satanic cult.   In the vein of Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret, “Aspe’s writing is crisp and his characters memorable” (Booklist).

1116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 28, 2017

About the author

Pieter Aspe was het pseudoniem van Pierre Aspeslag. Hij studeerde Latijn-Wetenschappen aan het Sint-Leocollege in Brugge. Na zijn humanoria volgde hij gedurende korte tijd de universitaire opleiding sociologie. Hierna werkte hij als magazijnier, verkoper, bediende, seizoenagent bij de zeevaartpolitie, fotograaf, studiemeester, handelaar in brocante, handelaar in wijn en conciërge van de Heilig-Bloedkapel in Brugge. Sinds 1996 was hij voltijds schrijver van misdaadromans.

Pieter Aspe in de Nederlandstalige Wikipedia

Pieter Aspe was the pseudonym of Pierre Aspeslag. He studied Latin-Sciences at the Sint-Leo College in Bruges.

Pieter Aspe was a full time writer since 1996. Aspe wrote crime fiction novels with inspector Pieter Van In and D.A. Hannelore Martens as principal characters, who become lovers in the first book Het vierkant van de wraak. Most of the stories are situated in Bruges, Belgium. Next to this series, Aspe also wrote two YA novels, Bloedband and the sequel Luchtpost and two novellas, Grof Wild and De Japanse Tuin.

In 2001 Aspe received the Hercule Poirot Price for his novel Zoenoffer.

The first ten novels of Aspe were made into a TV series called Aspe by VTM (Flemish TV channel). This was followed up by a second and third season, but they weren’t television adaptations of the books. However the storyline of the TV series was further developed under the supervision of Pieter Aspe himself. After the first season of the series Aspe, the number of book sales increased significantly. He has currently sold over 1.5 million books in Belgium and The Netherlands.

His 24th novel Misleid was released in April 2009.

Translated from source: www.aspe.be

Pieter Aspe in the English Wikipedia


Pieter Aspe (nom de plume de Pierre Aspeslag) est un écrivain flamand.

Pieter Aspe dans la Wikipédia française

Reviews

[Nancy Geary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for something different to read. OK, maybe not different - crime mysteries are my weakness - but a different location.
I came across this series set in Bruges, Belgium, and it hit the spot.
Detective Commissioner Pieter Van In solves mysteries in Bruges and the surrounding countryside.
The first one starts with a break in at a jewelry store where nothing is stolen, but millions in inventory has been destroyed in buckets of acid...
Lovely translation throughout the series. It was fun reading about another country's police and judicial hierarchy and locations that I was unfamiliar with, but compelled to look up during my reading.

[Dogsandbooks]

3.75