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2000s: The Night Market is a brutal and horrifying place.
2000s: The Night Market is a brutal and horrifying place.
Henk van der Pol, a 56 year old Dutch detective, has not had an easy time of it. His last case was a disaster in many ways so when he gets offered a job by the Justice Minister no less, he can hardly refuse. It’s not just any kind of job either but the task of infiltrating The Night Market – a dark place on the internet which is in reality an international ring of pedophiles. The catch is that he will not be working to catch one of the pedophiles but a cop who seems to be the link, the one who’s helping these guys on the night market stay hidden
It turns out that his visit to the Night Market is going to lead him down a whole new avenue of investigation and that the night is going to get a lot darker still before the sun ever comes up – that if it comes up again at all…
Night Market’s stunning cover doesn’t betray the book’s darker themes. It draws you into the inviting vision of picture perfect touristy Holland.
He travels to Norway in search of information and some mental respite in the company of his old acquaintance from the army Olaf Magnusson, now retired police captain, who had worked with the Oslo Police District, and has contacts in Kripos, the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service.
Henk’s ‘cold and wet’ weekend in Larvik and Stavern clarified some issues and gave him temporary peace of mind but not for long.
The dramatic sailing trip and ominous weather luckily don’t happen to everyone. Both towns are bathed in summer sunshine when I visit. You cannot escape the Dutch – Norwegian connections throughout the history, as Holland had traded with Norway for centuries, and ‘at one point, a fifth of the Dutch navy was made up of Norwegian sailors’. Old military and maritime history is present especially in Stavern which grew from a naval base called Fredriksvern initially built for the Royal Norwegian Navy.
by Ewa Sherman
Susan: @thebooktrailer
Daniel Pembrey is fast becoming my go to author for the darker side of locations. This is not the Amsterdam you’d expect to see if you went there for yourself. Even a journey to Oslo is not what you would expect. But then that’s the gritty cleverness of Daniel Pembrey – he puts you in places you know well but then he grabs the floor right out from beneath you feet and sends you reeling.
It’s a dark and difficult book to read at times given the subject matter but a very interesting case for Henk. He’s got a complex background and a complex future in many ways. It’s as if he and Daniel went to Amsterdam, and not only jumped from the tourist trail but stomped on it and brought the sludge of the canals to the surface. It’s a immersive reading experience, and I was championing Henk and the infiltration plan all the way despite my stomach turning with what he was trying to do.
I would recommend that you read the other books before this only because it helps build up the story and starts the threads that weave their way through the Night Market. Like a jigsaw, this book adds more pieces and takes some away but what you’re left with is one alluring and horrific picture and you can’t draw your eyes away from it.
I was gripped with the level of doubt and self – doubt in this novel. When you’re dealing with the dark web, it must be hard to know who to trust and who luks behind the shadows.There’s an unsettling undercurrent of mistrust and disbelief throughout and it grabs you and shoves you head first into the dregs of what this Amsterdam investigation brings up from its guts.
Author/Guide: Daniel Pembrey Destination:Amsterdam, Driebergen, Olso, Larvik Departure Time: 2000s
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