Some Day Tomorrow

Author of more than three dozen books, Edgar Award-winner Freeling remains willing to take chances and eschews the formulaic in this psychological tour de force. His narrator, Hubertus van Bijl, a 70-year-old retired Dutch flower grower, makes a rambling, broken confession, without chapter breaks. Just what Bert, as he calls himself, is confessing to is unclear, though the reader learns quickly of a young woman's murder and of Bert's routine questioning by the police. Sometimes ruminative, sometimes passionate, Bert paints a detailed self-portrait of a respectable Dutch businessman, husband, father and friendDwell educated and knowledgeable about many subjects. That portrait is juxtaposed with another that emerges more slowly, of a man approaching the end of his life. Shunted into retirement, Bert finds himself increasingly isolated. He speaks kindly, even affectionately, of his wife, Willy, but there is little warmth there. Bert's attempts at meaningful connections with a young woman, Lalage, and later with the wife of a friend are excruciating to watch. Closer questioning by the police, arrest and psychological testing do not break Bert's stoical resolve, but add weight to the narrative. (Dec. 1)