Van Veeteren has been diagnosed with operable cancer so he finally agrees to be hospitalized just as a most intriguing case opens. A young child on a school field trip has discovered a headless, handless body wrapped up in a rug and tossed into the woods. As van Veeteren recovers he sends his team out to conduct interviews; and much as Archie Goodwin reporting to Nero Wolfe they give their statements to their chief.

The only way the body can be identified is by a physical anomaly that points to a recently released convict who disappeared shortly after his release. Leopold Verhaven was found guilty of brutally murdering his fiancée and was unable to explain his actions enough to convince a jury of his innocence. An Olympic hopeful in the 50s in track, his prowess was tainted with the whiff of illegal drugs and he fell from grace. So when a woman connected with him is found dead and they had history of violent quarrels, Verhaven served time. Released nearly twenty years later, another female acquaintance dies so he returns to prison.

Has the pattern taken a turn? Verhaven is freed and revisits the same cabin in the woods he lived in before he was sentenced. No one knew he had come back so no one reported him missing. But someone knew and sought revenge. But who? Why? He had only a single visitor in the decades he was in prison. And that person is dead. Verhaven had no family? Again, questions arise.

Ignoring his doctor’s advice, van Veeteren resumes his old habits and calls his team together once he is released to solve this murder. This is where it gets iffy. The chapters alternate between the past and the present but seldom give a clue as to the narrator except for the third person present. Although it is meant to be a plot device it just makes for confusion and then when van Veeteren identifies people and their relationships to Verhaven without any obvious connection it seems as if the author is toying with his readers.

Perhaps the problem lies in the translation. Maybe English lacks a particular idiom which means “the one who truly hates the star athlete and waits for a chance to revenge a wrongful death.” Possibly but I doubt it. So if you don’t mind your CD skipping vital bits of plot and motivation this may be the book for you.

--Jane Davis