Tuesday 3 March 2020

Purgatory

In this apocalyptic year 2020, you may wonder what to do during your last days in this valley of tears, right before the ultimate cataclysm, the coming of God's Wrath, Dies Irae.

Perhaps you could enjoy your last book. Purgatory is Guido (Walter) Eekhaut's next crime case after Absinthe. Like in many crime books and television series, the successive episodes build upon the same good guys (with characterising weaknesses), in this case Eekhaut, Dewaal, Prinsen and Van Gils. As the bad guys usually end up in jail or grave, they may need to be replaced.

Amsterdam is again the city of crime to the detriment of good old Leuven town, Eekhaut's home base. To compensate for this, there is a lot of good food and dark Leffe beer in the story. As the title suggests, religious-sectarian zeal plays a driving role in the crime scene and from time to time, the main characters tend to express their opinion about the place of religion in society, something I always find most interesting.

The stories would fit well in a violent, gruesome Scandinavian crimi on Canvas on a Saturday evening. Anyway, after Liège, also our Leuven town can now claim to have its commissaire Maigret.

1 comment:

Manu Van Lil said...

Beste Wim,
Always better than hell. The pugatory is supposed to be temporary, like the 40 days. But indeed, what is time on the scale of the universe?
Dear Sherlock, you are scaring me to walk around in Leuven after dark (vooral als er vier Russen rondlopen).
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Manu