Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country (UK 2001)

From the Publisher:
A wealthy playboy and a romantic young girl disappear at the same time. The case seems ordinary enough, but Inspector van der Valk's search takes him across Europe, and eventually leads him to a double murder.

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country. A Van der Valk-Thriller. House of Stratus, ISBN: 1842328433 (July, 2001), 166 p., £6.99.

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country (1985)

From the Publisher:
A handsome middle-aged millionaire has disappeared with a naked girl -- and it's up to Inspector Van der Valk to find them.
Jean-Claude Marschal commanded one of the largest fortunes in private hands. He was successful in business, pursued the expected activities of the rich, and enjoyed a conventional marriage. And then, without fuss or fanfare, he simply vanished.

As Inspector Van der Valk tracks Marschal's trail from Cologne to Innsbruck, Chamonix, and finally to a grisly discovery in Strasbourg, the inspector learns much about the ways of the wealthy -- and more than he would like about the fury of a desperately jealous woman.

"Van der Valk cases are important required reading... This is one of the best." -- The New York Times Book Review

"He has the popular storyteller's gifts: the right pace and the constant satisfaction of controlled expectations." -- Times Literary Supplement

"The best of all police detectives." -- Sunday Times (London)

Cover design and illustration by Irving Freeman

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country. A Van der Valk Mystery. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1985, ISBN: 0140028536, 157 p., £1.95, $3.50.

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country (UK 1975)

From the Publisher:
This was the end of the story that had started 'Once upon a time, in a rainy country, there was a king...' The end had not happened in a rainy country, but on a bone-dry Spanish hillside, three hundred metres from where Van der Valk had left a lot of blood, some splintered bone, a few fragments of gut, and a ten-seventy-five Mauser rifle bullet.

No one had broken any laws. But a handsome, middle-aged millionaire had disappeared with a naked girl. And Van der Valk was given the job of finding out why.

Cover design by Robert Hollingsworth, photograph by Peter Barbieri

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country. A Van der Valk Thriller. Penguin, ISBN: 0140028536 (May, 1975), 157 p., 50p.

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country (USA 1968)

From the Publisher:
"Every book by Nicolas Freeling is a gem. The King of the Rainy Country, intriguing, sensual, acid in its view of the Good Life, is a perfect, blue-white thirty-carat diamond." -- Stanley Ellin

Inspector Van der Valk was doing some quiet, undercover investigating -- nothing criminal, no foul play, just the odd disappearance, or perhaps nonappearance would be a better word, of a wealthy man. Cause for worry, but not -- yet -- cause for alarm.

But the investigation led to another disappearance. The chase for the two persons led to ski resorts, carnivals, a small village, and past murder (or suicide?) until Van der Valk uncovered some astonishing facts and a solution to the problems. Or so he thought.

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country. Ballantine Books #U5112 (May, 1968), 192 p., 60¢.

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country (USA 1966)

From the Publisher:
"Every book by Nicolas Freeling is a gem. The King of the Rainy Country, intriguing, sensual, acid in its view of the Good Life, is a perfect, blue-white thirty-carat diamond." -- Stanley Ellin

"Freeling creates complicated and convincing people, not just plots; and, so doing, he skillfully unravels the mysteries of human conduct. There is no one quite like him, no one who can take a seemingly casual situation, and give the reader a new experience as well as suspense." -- Louis Untermeyer

"Once more author Freeling adds new style to the chase which puts him well ahead of the thrill-writers." -- Ralph E. Lapp

It had all started when an elegant businessman named Canisius came to Van der Valk to ask him to do some undercover detecting -- to find out about the millionaire Jean-Claude Marschal, who had disappeared. There was no foul play suspected. Apparently, Marschal had suddenly decided to vanish from his job, leaving his luxurious home, his self-indulgent way of life and his devoted, very attractive, if rather reserved, aristocratic Belgian wife.

Trying to find some trace, Van der Valk sought the help of an old friend, a policeman, in Cologne. The old friend had missing-person troubles, too -- in his case a very pretty, very young, unsophisticated beauty-pageant girl had vanished.

The chase for the two missing persons -- could they possibly be connected? -- wandered into expert ski trails, through a carnival and a small village, past murder (or suicide?), until Van der Valk uncovered some astonishing facts and a solution to the problems -- or so he thought.

Nicolas Freeling has won a very enthusiastic audience here. This is one of his most remarkable books.

Jacket design by Edgar Blakeney

Nicolas Freeling: The King of the Rainy Country. A Harper Novel of Suspense. New York: Harper & Row, 1966, 182 p., $4.50.