Death In Rembrandt Square by Anja de Jager

The Blurb:

Guilty until proven innocent . . .

It's hard for anyone to have their work scrutinised in public. For Amsterdam-based detective Lotte Meerman, listening to the Right to Justice podcast as they dissect one of her old cases is made even more harrowing as every episode makes fresh accusations of a bungled operation.

As the podcast reveals hidden facts about the arrest of Ruud Klaver, the one thing Lotte is still convinced of is that it was Ruud who was guilty of the murder of a student near Rembrandt Square ten years earlier. However, when Ruud Klaver then dies in suspicious circumstances, only hours after the final podcast proving his innocence is broadcast, Lotte has to accept that maybe she was wrong.

With the dead man's family passionately against her inclusion in the investigation into his death, the only way for Lotte to discover who killed him is by finding out where she went wrong all those years ago - if indeed she did go wrong. As Lotte digs deeper and involves colleagues from her past, it starts to look like the murder in Rembrandt Square was part of an even bigger deception . . .

About Anja de Jager:

Anja de Jager is a London-based native Dutch speaker who writes in English. She draws inspiration from cases her father, a retired police detective, worked in the Netherlands. Anja has written a number of short stories, some of which have been shortlisted for Mslexia. She is currently working on the next Lotte Meerman novel.

My Review:

For me, as an avid reader of the crime fiction genre, most of which is set in the UK and US, the Lotte Meerman series is a getaway vacation for me, with Ms de Jager's wonderful descriptive prose in an Amsterdam setting, with a few deaths thrown in for good measure. A podcast documentary series called 'Fight for Justice' campaigns to clear the name of Ruud Klaver, a convicted killer who had served ten years in prison after being arrested by Detective Meerman. A year out of prison and he is killed in a hit and run incident, and Lotte, who is hated by Klaver's family who believe he was wrongly imprisoned, is reluctantly in charge of the investigation. A very clever plot packaged with intrigue, and unexpected twists. A five star read, leaving me looking forward to my next 'Meerman' trip to Amsterdam.