{"id":3289,"date":"2018-08-22T07:14:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/?p=3289"},"modified":"2018-08-22T07:14:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:14:02","slug":"this-flemish-thriller-will-keep-you-guessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/this-flemish-thriller-will-keep-you-guessing\/","title":{"rendered":"This Flemish Thriller Will Keep You Guessing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because I’ve had wonderful trips to Flanders in the past few years,I\u2019ve been developing an interest in Flemish crime fiction. I recently discovered and reviewed Styx, <\/em>a fantastic crime novel by Bavo Dhooge (pronounced Bah-voh Dough-hey). That book led me to another Flemish thriller, Baudelaire\u2019s Revenge<\/em> by Bob Van Laerhoven. Scandinavian crime writers currently dominate the discussion of European crime writing, but based on just these two marvels, maybe their Flemish cousins are on the way up….<\/p>\n

Van Laerhoven\u2019s written a colorful, complex, atmospheric, darkly sensual crime thriller set in a fascinating period.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The book\u2019s events take place primarily during a national catastrophe: the Franco-Prussian war, which is about to devastate Paris. \u201cWith the trumpets of war blaring in the background and [Napoleon III] delivering pompous declarations about the grandeur of France, all sorts of things were apparently permissible.\u201d The city has been frantic with real estate speculation, sexual and political corruption, s\u00e9ances, Satanism, and spiritualism. Opium and nude women dancing with snakes in nightclubs are just some of the escapist delights available for the cognoscenti.<\/p>\n

A literate ex-army police commissioner who\u2019s a combination of \u201chermit and whoremonger\u201d is handed a bizarre case. The ghost of poet Charles Baudelaire might be committing grotesque murders\u2014as revenge for his mistreatment while he was alive. It\u2019s a terrific opening conceit. I mean, what author hasn\u2019t imagined savaging his or her critics\u2014more power to you if you can do it from the Beyond. But the criminality has a more improbable source, if you can believe it, and the novel turns on dark, nasty, sublimely twisted secrets\u2014as well it should. This is a book where poetry and perversity reign, with a deft nod to Edgar Allen Poe.<\/p>\n

The police commissioner is aptly, ironically named: Lef\u00e8vre (the fever), and the author has fun with other character names. Lef\u00e8vre has previously gone up against many insane killers, has a \u201cbloodhound reputation,\u201d bears \u201cthe scars of pitiless duels,\u201d and is obsessed with sex and death. He\u2019s not the only feverish character in the book: le tout Paris<\/em> seems on the verge of hysteria, a breakdown, or revolution. And over everything, the increasingly gruesome murders drift like the foul miasma of a sewer….<\/p>\n

Baudelaire wrote that travel teaches bitter lessons (amer savoir, celui qu\u2019on tire de voyage<\/em>), but for fans of international crime fiction, travel via thrillers only broadens our horizons. And as Laerhoven\u2019s poetry-quoting, lust-driven inspector says, \u201cmurder sensitizes people to the mysteries that lurk behind everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lev Raphael is the author of 25 books in many genres, including the guide for writers, Writer\u2019s Block is Bunk<\/a>.\u00a0 You can take creative writing workshops with him online at writewithoutborders.com.<\/a>\u201cStudying creative writing with Lev Raphael was like seeing Blade Runner<\/em> for the first time: simply incredible.\u201d\u2014Kyle Roberts, MSU Class of 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because I’ve had wonderful trips to Flanders in the past few years,I\u2019ve been developing an interest in Flemish crime fiction. I recently discovered and reviewed Styx, a fantastic crime novel by Bavo Dhooge (pronounced Bah-voh Dough-hey). That book led me to another Flemish thriller, Baudelaire\u2019s Revenge by Bob Van Laerhoven. Scandinavian crime writers currently dominate … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[877],"tags":[1488,875,1492,219,1489,822,1491,1494,464,1487,1493,397,1485,1438,976],"class_list":["post-3289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-baudelaire","tag-book-review","tag-charles-baudelaire","tag-crime-fiction","tag-edgar-allen-poe","tag-flanders","tag-flemish-crime-fiction","tag-franco-prussian-war","tag-historical-fiction","tag-historical-mystery","tag-historical-thriller","tag-mystery","tag-paris","tag-summer-reads","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3289"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3912,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions\/3912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}