Sandcastles

Van der Valk #13

by Nicolas Freeling

A Van der Valk Thriller - Crime and corruption ooze from the dark corners of small towns and no one understands this more than Police Inspector Van der Valk. But small town isn't Jan Rijk, a right-wing criminal whose connections with the underworld may be devastating to the lives of small town people. What can Van der Valk do to stop him?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Procedural, Crime

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

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

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

You might say that all Nicolas Freeling books are experimental, as he does not follow the normal pattern of detective or crime novels, which is to say, an event, an inquiry, a resolution, with odd murders and mayhem along the way. Sometimes he tells us what happens at the end of the story, in the beginning. At other times, he runs around the fringes of what appears to be the main issue, exploring all sorts of apparently unrelated ideas. True, he usually brings it all together in the end into some sort of denouement, but it is not just to surprise us with his/van der Valk's perspicacity, although you might see it like that.

In Sand Castles, he adopts yet another method. Just when you think the part of the story you are reading is going to take some sort of strange turn (that is, even stranger than it has up until now!), it ends altogether! Now that is a surprise, for the book is not yet finished - there is more than 100 pages left to go. So what is going to happen? And in this particular case, it really is a surprise, which I won't give a way.

Always a thoughtful writer, Freeling has sent van der Valk on holiday in this book, and as understanding as Arlette can usually be, she finds there is rather a lot to put up with on this springtime journey along the north coast of Holland and then Germany. Another good van der Valk read.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable for Freeling's unique style, the fairly sharp definition of the characters, the guide to the landscapes and some of the culture of the northern coasts of The Netherlands and Germany as of about 1980. Disappointing in the perfunctory nature of the way that two novellas (one shorter and one longer) are crammed into this volume, in the implausibility of much that goes on, and in the way that a supposed secret service agent spotted by Van der Valk is on a basically unexplained mission and doing some odd things.
Freeling refers a few times to Hitchcock movies; you get the feeling he was simply playing around with Hitchcock tropes. Then there are the references to the Erskine Childers' notorious pre-WW I thriller The Riddle of the Sands; I vaguely recall Freeling writing in a quasi-autobiographical effort title The Village Book that Childers was a relative. More alarmingly, Freeling gave full rein to his penchant for prurience in this one. He gave similar full rein to frequent comments about "female" habits and ways of thinking. There is one sentence in which he allows that men, especially mid-level bureaucrats, may sometimes share such thought patterns, but that comes across as a possible attempt at self-exculpation. At the end, Van der Valk is in bed reading Brideshead Revisited and comments that "there might be passages flawed, or one felt a bit uneasy with, but so damned well written." It's hard not to think that Freeling was reviewing his own book, which features a presumably market-driven retrospective appearance of a policeman he had killed off more than a decade earlier.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicolas Freeling killed off Van der Valk in 1972’s Aupres de ma Blonde. Then he wrote The Widow (in 1979) and Arlette (1981) , both dealing with Arlette’s life post Piet. Finally in 1989, he wrote Sand Castles, which goes back the days before Van de Valk was murdered, when he was still an active duty cop and taking a vacation driving trip with Arlette through the Dutch countryside and into Germany. Van der Valk, being the curious and observant cop he is, keeps turning up oddities – an exchange of child pornographic photos in a café, a wealthy and seemingly cordial right wing businessman who is ready to cause a ruckus, a blowhard fundamentalist American preacher who is also ready for trouble. The Van der Valks’ trip meanders a bit, whimsically, as does the story – there are bits of terrific local color, bits of literary observation – Buchan’s racism, Simenon’s early days. If you are a stickler for linear narrative, this is not the book for you, but if you enjoy freewheeling meditative trips, this is a winner.

[Deb Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed Nicolas Freeling's van der Valk series. Freeling takes the reader on thought excursions throughout his novels, not being a linear writer. It is refreshing for me as a long-time mystery/crime reader and thought-provoking.

Sandcastles did not live up to the reading enjoyment I've experienced with other books in the series. Perhaps Freeling wrote this book for his reading public rather than for the enjoyment a writer experiences. Sandcastles came out as an afterthought, many years after the author had killed off his popular character in a previous novel. It seems that it was the reading public clamoring for more of the much-loved character -- and perhaps, prodding from his publisher -- that brought about this story.

This doesn't diminish my love for the series, but makes me sad for a writer with talents much greater than Sandcastles would indicate.

[Mark Schomburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Constant thoughtful reflection blends plot, local history, social attitudes and opinions into a stream of narrative that is only partly made of dialog. We get Dutch peculiarities explained as a matter of course. The setting is cultural not only physical. In this way the book translates itself well for readers who are perhaps unfamiliar with European situations.

The detective matches no type I have encountered on the mystery shelves before. Van Der Valk is no Wallander, no American trenchcoat or P.I. This book made a favorable impression on this first-time reader of the series.

The villain did not seem suited to carry off the book. Monotonous sequences seem to just be the brickwork of a path in a circle, hard to bear.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 1 out of 5]

"[...] a once bestselling writer whom everybody now thought a joke"

Nicolas Freeling had achieved international fame as one of the best crime novelists of the second half of the 20th century based on a series of novels featuring Inspector, later Commissaris, Van der Valk. I was totally awed when Mr. Freeling killed his main hero mid-case in 1972 in one of the best crime novels of all time A Long Silence . Even though the author was famously known for his disdain of clichés and repetition, discontinuing a series that brought him fame and made a lot of money must have required real courage of conviction. So I was greatly disappointed when I learned that Mr. Freeling succumbed to the readers' pressure and returned to Van der Valk much later in his life. As much as it pains me to say this, Sand Castles (1989), despite some flashes of writing brilliance, is not a good book. The sentence quoted in the epigraph is taken from the novel; does it convey the author's bitterness?

Anyway, Van der Valk walks into a bar... The Commissaris and his wife Arlette are spending vacations on the Dutch coast. In a small seaside town, Van der Valk visits a bar, where he notices some strange goings on. Having followed a suspicious character he discovers quite ugly criminal activity that involves local notables, people in position of responsibility. When these doings are properly dealt with by the Commissaris, it is off to Germany for the vacationing couple. On Norderney island they meet a rather mysterious character, a Mr. Rijk (Herr Reich, in German), a rich businessman who insists on making friends with Van der Valk. "Why is he so damn pally?" wonders the Commissaris. Alas the suspense soon dissipates into a run-of-the-mill thriller that features spies, government agents, right-wing conspiracies, and - as a pièce de résistance - a preacher from Florida. Some people get killed and the climactic scene occurs near the Visbek Bride, a megalith assemblage close to Bremen, in northern Germany. Enchanting place, utterly silly scene.

While Herr Reich is a well-drawn character and the initial suspense is promising, the idiotic plot of the standard thriller variety is so cliché that it is hard to believe it comes from Mr. Freeling. Also, the purpose of including in the novel the first part of the plot escapes me. There are some beautifully written passages, where the places on the Dutch and German coast, the small towns and the big cities, come alive on the pages of Freeling's prose. All in all, though, Sand Castles is - to me - the weakest book by my favorite author: unremarkable, unnecessary, and forgettable. Van der Valk is an ill-conceived revenant.

One and a half stars.