The Seacoast of Bohemia: A Henri Castang Mystery Novel

In his latest case, Brussels' Henri Castang (Love in Amsterdam et al.), once a policeman but now an ""Advisory Expert on criminology"" in the vast bureaucracy of the European Community, agrees to investigate the disappearance of Anita and Arnold Rogier's son, Maurice, kidnapped four years ago, when he was eight years old. Mme. Rogier insists she has just received a call from her son, but few believe her. Castang's search leads him and his wife, Vera, born in Czechoslovakia, first to Mme. Rogier's father, an SS officer during WWII, and then to Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, where the past catches up with the present. In the end, the motivation for the kidnapping is unclear, and a leap from that crime to another is too great. Although Freeling touches on some of the ironies of post-Cold War Europe, this tale, shifting point of view between past and present, lacks a clear focus. The result is that Castang's wry, dark musings, even against the backdrop of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (as indicated in the title), spread a murky fog over events rather than cast their usual revealing sidelight. (June)