Zandvoort on the Dutch coast. Carla Zomerlust, a young university student, is found murdered on the local dunes. The signs point to sexual molestation, a probable rape. Bert, retired now and ailing after a recent prostate operation, falls under police suspicion. He know the girl, befriended her even, but did he kill her?

In his latest novel, Freeling, creator of the ever-popular Van der Valk and Castang detective series, reveals himself as a novelist at the height of his powers. Never one to fit into easy categories, Freeling turns his perceptive imagination inwards to examine the effects wrought by ageing on the male psyche and male desire. This is the instantly recognizable voice that revolutionized crime writing and after forty years of exploring human passions asks, ‘Do we know?’

‘The most underestimated writer in England’ Anita Brookner

‘Freeling is the only British novelist of consequence to have tackled modern Europe. I have no doubt this expatriate Englishman joins Graham Greene and George V. Higgins as the great crime writers of the mid and late years of our century’ Grey Gowrie, Daily Telegraph