Corporate Pathfinders Book

Nicolas Freeling wrote books, many of which were crime novels. He was born in Britain but lived much of his life in Strasbourg, France, and his books capture the cosmopolitan, European societies. He had two series characters: Piet Van der Valk, a Dutch police detective and bureaucrat; and Henri Castang, a French detective. Freeling also wrote some non-detective novels, which I mostly didn't like very much. This book is a Castang mystery.

The Van der Valk and Castang novels are wonderful. They're witty and overflowing with fascinating characters. Besides the detectives themselves, their wives, Arlette (Van der Valk) and Vera (Castang) and Castang's boss, Adrien Richard are fully developed, but the minor characters are great, too.

The books require some concentration For one thing, almost every character seems to have gone to a better school than I did. The references to literature, the arts, music, and history flow generously. Also, Freeling has a habit of not telling you who is speaking, which throws me off. But if I accept that sometimes, I will be disoriented or miss something, I get a lot out of reading and re-reading his books.

I would say that if you're new to Freeling, the Van der Valk books are a little more accessible.