Double Barrel — Nicolas Freeling

They told Inspector Van der Valk to pose as a bureaucrat, go to the dreariest town in Northern Holland and forget he was a policeman. They wanted him and his wife to become small-town eavesdroppers like everybody else. Just to find out who was writing letters so poisonous that two women committed suicide and everyone was scared of everyone else.

It could have been Van der Valk's most routine job ... except that he found out a lot about himself, his French wife and small towns; and just by chance uncovered one of this century's most wanted criminals.