The 37th novel from vintage crime writer Nicolas Freeling, creator of the ever-popular Van der Valk and Castang detective series, this is a tale of love and death in the cynical political worlds of Strasbourg and Paris. 'Freeling's Inspector Van der Valk is less rugged than Rebus, less parsonical than Dalgliesh, more Morse than Frost, and more Maigret than any of them. Marvellous' - Anita Brookner '...elegant style and continually interesting narrative which give his novels their special flavour' - P.D. James