The Midas Murders

Crafty. Be warned: if you read The Midas Murders by Peter Aspe, you may be setting yourself up for reading every book in this series as they are translated from Flemish. Set in the beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium, the protagonist is police inspector Van In, a crafty, moody and often whiskey-sodden character. The city and police inspector are a perfect pair. Van In has to set aside some personal problems, including the foreclosure of his house, to investigate the murder of a German visitor and the bombing of the statue of a Flemish poet. In’s romantic relationship with prosecutor Hannelore Martens provides another respite from his troubled life, alongside his work. Aspe respects the intelligence of readers with a complicated case, and despite all the possible distractions, In gets to the bottom of things by the end. This was my first exposure to Aspe, and when I finished this second installment, I added the first in the series to my reading queue. I’m hooked. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Midas Murders from amazon.com.