Percentages of Guilt: A Valentin Vermeulen Thriller

Niemann’s solid fifth Valentin Vermeulen thriller (after 2019’s No Right Way) takes Vermeulen from New York City, where he works for the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Service and is responsible for “making sure UN funds expended reach their intended recipients rather than disappearing into someone’s pocket,” to Antwerp, Belgium, where he once worked as a prosecutor. An unsympathetic magistrate informs him of a complaint accusing him of being responsible for a death. Thirteen years earlier, Vermeulen handled an inquiry into how cash was flowing from Belgium into the pockets of Latin American drug lords. Now, Theo Vinke, a gangster’s son Vermeulen vaguely knows, is accusing him of leaking the fact that Vinke’s father, Frans, was aiding the authorities in the inquiry, a revelation that led to Frans’s murder. In order to clear himself of the charge that his actions led to an informant’s death, Vermeulen must revisit the old complex money laundering case. An original plotline is matched by a hero with an unusual background. Niemann knows how to keep the pages turning. (Nov.)