Flanders Sky - Softcover

Freeling, Nicolas

3.56

25 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446403520 ISBN 13: 9780446403528

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1993

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Exiled to a bureaucratic post in Bruxelles, Inspector Henri Castang sets out to prove a colleague's innocence when the wife of his English friend is murdered. Reprint.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Another reprimand, another transfer, finds Lille police Commissaire Henri Castang (Those in Peril, etc.) reassigned to Brussels, where he will push paper clips around as a minor functionary under Harold Claverhouse, head of Juridical Services. Meanwhile, Vera, Henri's Czech wife, and Harold's chic but difficult Anglo-Irish wife, Iris, become friends--and, later, it is to Henri and Vera that Harold appears, in shock, and announces the strangulation of his wife. What happened? Henri and Vera alternate in relating a saga that may have less to do with personal idiosyncracies than with the character of a country--here, the juxtaposition of England, Ireland, Belgium, France, all on a collision course with Flanders's innocence and East Germany's prying. Also converging: another murder, which comes to light during Henri and Vera's social work at AccŠs house, and which concerns two young runaways, whose incestuous papa was employed by the father of 19-year-old Marie, who was in love with Claverhouse. A lengthy trial sequence offers, if not quite justice, an explanation for both Claverhouse and the young runaways' motives. One of the better Castang tales, journeying into the maze of European politics, national characteristics, and combustible emotion. Thought-provoking and well told. -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Freeling brightens the fall season with this sophisticated and introspective murder mystery, the 14th appearance of Inspector Henri Castang and his wife, Vera. Put out to pasture, Castang has been assigned as an aide to a British jurist, Harold Claverhouse, at European Community headquarters in Brussels. When Claverhouse is charged with the murder of his wife, Castang's police instincts and skills come to the fore. After the Berlin Wall is brought down, Vera visits her mother in Czechoslovakia, a journey that gives her insight into the comparable Irish background of the murder victim. While volunteering at a center for runaways, Henri becomes involved with two girls who are being abused both physically and sexually by their father; their tragedy becomes a central issue for the defense at Claverhouse's trial. The trial itself is fascinating and turns on a surprising statement from the accused; as the story unfolds from the alternating perspectives of Henri and Vera, Freeling comments on ethnic and nationalistic differences and the changing face of Europe. Neither whodunit nor mystery, this is an insightful look at the human condition. Freeling is a treasure.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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