The Midas Murders by Pieter Aspe 1 star

[Rachel N.]

The book is nominally about Inspector Van In of the Bruges police investigating the murder of a German who had a mysterious meeting in a bar before his death and the bombing of a statue. The book switches viewpoints constantly and it's hard to keep track of who is who. Van In is an obnoxious drunk who alternates between anger and depression and I have no idea why his girlfriend stays with him or how he keeps his job. Every woman in the book is treated as a sex object and has no personality. The book also has a horrible metaphor or simile on every page, for example "Moens radiated like an applicant who had finally been given a job after his thirty-sixth psychological screening." Reading a book full of endless lines such as that was painful. If I hadn't had such a hard time finding a Belgium book in my library I never would have finished this book.