The Fourth Figure: A Pieter Van In Mystery

In Aspe’s busy fourth outing for Commissioner Pieter Van In (after 2015’s From Bruges with Love), the cranky, nonconformist Flemish police detective gets almost more than he can handle when the death of a young woman, a possible suicide whose body was found floating in a Bruges canal, leads to multiple homicides and a satanic cult. An attractive journalist, Saartje Maes, gets access to the investigation, much to the dismay of Van In, who hates people looking over his shoulder. Van In’s pregnant wife, district attorney Hannelore Martens, is none too happy about Saartje’s involvement either. The threads of the case slowly untangle, building to a dramatic confrontation between Van In and Venex, the head of the satanic cult, at the hospital where Hannelore has gone into labor. The scenes involving the cultists have a static feel, but the dynamic Van In keeps the action moving whenever he’s onstage. (Sept.)