Little Sister (Pieter Vos 3)

Author/Guide: David Hewson

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Her death will haunt us forever. Now the price must be paid.

ISBN: 978-1447293408
Genre: Crime

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What you need to know before your trail

Kim and Mia Timmers were just eleven years old when their sister Jo, and their family was killed. Then the sisters were accused of murdering the lead singer of a world-famous pop band in the Dutch fishing village of Volendam since they believed that he was the one responsible for their family’s deaths. The evidence seemed stacked against them and so they were locked up in Marken, a local psychiatric institution. Now, ten years later, they are due for release and so are transported to a half way house.

But they go missing along with a nurse who was in charge of taking them to their halway house. When the nurse’s corpse washes up on the beach at Marken, it becomes apparent that the institution holds the key to the investigation.

And in a chilling twist, Kim and Mia’s other sister – Jo, who was supposedly murdered along with their parents ten years ago seems to trying to get in touch…

Locations

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Travel Guide

Marken

“People on the island village understood that there was some kind of psychiatric institution on this doorstep”

The prison, for such it seemed, was a dun-coloured two – story block hidden away in a solitary wood on the edge of the island of Marken. sixteen rooms for young patients with nothing to do but listen to their handlers, read books, watch TV, walk the small enclosed garden and stare out at the still, grey waters surrounding them.

Volendam

The fishing village where the girls are from – “The modest fishing village across the water was where they murdered Rogier Glas” This is the town where the Palingsound, the Netherlands equivalent of Beatlemania started.

Amsterdam

The city of canals and watery secrets again comes to life in this novel. It’s the unique setting of Pieter Vos, the floating detective with a house boat near the pub he always seems to frequent. The city police are not usually called out to crimes in rural areas but this one has Pieter’s radar on full alert

Streetview Maps

A) Marken island Church

C) Amsterdam - Cale Eland

Booktrailer Review

Clare: @thebooktrailer

There’s something very moreish about this author. Having read his novels in order, I am always left wanting more and wanting to return to Amsterdam. He’s one of the authors who for me not only uses his settings well but really weaves them in and out of every aspect of the plot. His writing and characters are just so evocative of time and place and really make the settings more than backdrops. The island setting in particular shows a unique side to the Netherlands and the contrast to bustling Amsterdam.

This one had the added chill of being set outside of Amsterdam for the most part and the idea that an island ‘prison’ was at the heart of the story. There was a great sense of foreboding, a chilling sense of unease throughout and two lead characters who were the most unreliable narrators I’ve ever encountered. I kept imaging them as ghostly figures staring straight ahead whilst holding hands – or maybe I’v ebeen reading too many ghostly stories with children at the centre.

There’s always something new and different about Hewson’s novel and writiting – Vos in particular is a great character – differnnt, unique and lives on a boat which gives him an odd and endearing quality. It’s a wonder his many faults and foibles don’t sink it but then that’s part of the lplot.

With an old case being reopened and a new one set to explode, this is a great standalone and thrid episode in the Vos series. Very evocative and the writing always takes it that level higher.