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Van der Valk #2-4
The Nicolas Freeling Omnibus: Gun Before Butter; Because of Cats; Double-Barrel
461 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Nicolas Freeling
87 books60 followersNicolas Freeling born Nicolas Davidson, (March 3, 1927 - July 20, 2003) was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels which were adapted for transmission on the British ITV network by Thames Television during the 1970s.
Freeling was born in London, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at Grandfontaine to the west of Strasbourg. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of stealing some food.[citation needed]
Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association, and France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.
From Wikipedia
Series:
* Van Der Valk
* Henri Castang
Freeling was born in London, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at Grandfontaine to the west of Strasbourg. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of stealing some food.[citation needed]
Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association, and France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.
From Wikipedia
Series:
* Van Der Valk
* Henri Castang
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
April 26, 2018
No, please, shower me not with deservèd praise for this review, but heap it instead on vast Hugh Mility, the co-author of all my best works. I picked up the NFO in a charity shop for 6p, so I have no complaints of any sort to make in relation to the financial aspects of my reading experience. As for the literary qualities...
This is a decidedly dated book, both in style and in attitude--in parts horribly sexist. About 50% of each story, I should guess, by word-count is gratuitous detailed description. No setting, object or character is too incidental to warrant less that a hundred words, and some get several pages. Not only does the omniscient third-person narrator describe these things to us directly, he also describes in great detail his characters' reflections upon them. Were Freeling to be typing this review he would no doubt say that he was doing so upon a Samsung XYZ, the keys of which bore the wear of years of critical typing, many of the letter upon them having all but disappeared from the repeated abrasive impact of millions of finger-strokes, the original matt white finish having been worn to a yellowed smoothness, with cracks appearing here and there upon the fatigued plastic casing, cracks in which grey grime had been carelessly allowed to build up through the lack of cleaning by the custodian of the poor neglected laptop. He would go on to reflect about some bizarre parallel between that and the state of Belgium after the war, and you just feel like saying for Christ sakes just get on with it. Or I do, at any rate--perhaps some people enjoy that sort of rambling digression.
Aside from the countless thousands of words of extraneous description, the books are characterised by the attitude of the protagonist--Piet Van der Valk--who is one of those maverick detectives who solves cases through a series of miraculous insights absent of any clear evidence.
Given all that, you might want to give the book one or two stars, but I think it has to get three just because it's nice to read something by someone who knows how to write proper sentences for once.
This is a decidedly dated book, both in style and in attitude--in parts horribly sexist. About 50% of each story, I should guess, by word-count is gratuitous detailed description. No setting, object or character is too incidental to warrant less that a hundred words, and some get several pages. Not only does the omniscient third-person narrator describe these things to us directly, he also describes in great detail his characters' reflections upon them. Were Freeling to be typing this review he would no doubt say that he was doing so upon a Samsung XYZ, the keys of which bore the wear of years of critical typing, many of the letter upon them having all but disappeared from the repeated abrasive impact of millions of finger-strokes, the original matt white finish having been worn to a yellowed smoothness, with cracks appearing here and there upon the fatigued plastic casing, cracks in which grey grime had been carelessly allowed to build up through the lack of cleaning by the custodian of the poor neglected laptop. He would go on to reflect about some bizarre parallel between that and the state of Belgium after the war, and you just feel like saying for Christ sakes just get on with it. Or I do, at any rate--perhaps some people enjoy that sort of rambling digression.
Aside from the countless thousands of words of extraneous description, the books are characterised by the attitude of the protagonist--Piet Van der Valk--who is one of those maverick detectives who solves cases through a series of miraculous insights absent of any clear evidence.
Given all that, you might want to give the book one or two stars, but I think it has to get three just because it's nice to read something by someone who knows how to write proper sentences for once.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review