This Van Der Walk book grew on me as the story progressed.

Initially, the story didn’t grab me as the police appeared to know who the culprits were very quickly, but it was the reasons why the culprits acted in the way they did that was the fascinating part of the story.

Van Der Valk is an interesting character, not a conventional policeman who befriends whores and has the mother of one of the suspects throwing herself at him as she needs ‘consoling’.

The action all takes place in the town of Bloemendaal aan Zee a pleasant place of modern buildings, high incomes, and little crime. That is until some terrifying robberies occur where the victim’s homes are turned upside down in a frenzy of mindless violence. This is when Van der Valk is called in from nearby Amsterdam to solve the case.