![]() Unlike Sir Conan Doyle, however, he would not cave into popular pressure and resurrect his detective: instead, he let Van der Valk’s widow, the gourmet chef Arlette, take center stage in two further books. Freeling’s enthusiasm for his hero, though he would later, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decades earlier, grow weary of the character who had brought him fame and fortune, and kill him off. Being made an example of and deported alongside his Dutch wife, Renee, did little to dampen Mr. Freeling after he was caught stealing meat for his wife’s dinner from the hotel kitchen where he worked as a chef. This creation was inspired by the Dutch police inspector who interrogated Mr. ![]() His debut series features Inspector Piet Van der Valk, a student of history and a dogged, somewhat cynical investigator. Though born in London to English parents, he spent most of his life on the continent, an influence that shows in his fiction writing. Nicolas Freeling considered himself a true European. ![]()
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