Part of Series
Faulkner once wrote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."Valentin Vermeulen learns the hard way how true that is. His former employer, the prosecutor's office in Antwerp, calls him back. There are some irregularities with an old case. Once in his old home town, he finds out that he's accused of abetting the murder of an informant back in 2002. His interrogators slowly peel back the layers of the case and force Vermeulen to admit that he didn't always play by the rules. He realizes quickly that he is to shoulder all of the responsibility for the death. But the authorities aren't the only ones interested in blaming Vermeulen. The son of the informant is out for revenge and a crime boss shows a keen interest in the investigation. Things come to a head when Vermeulen discovers a memo that implicates him in the murder of the informant. He races against time to prove that the memo was forged until he learns that the memo is the least of his worries. Something much larger is at stake and Vermeulen is pushed into a tight corner as he struggles to clear his name and save his life.
Author
Award winning author Michael Niemann has long been interested in the sites where ordinary people’s lives and global processes intersect. He’s shared umqombothi with shack dwellers outside Cape Town, interviewed Morgan Tsvangirai, former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, when he was still a trade union leader, and has seen Eduardo Mondlane’s dorm room at Northwestern University, faithfully recreated at the Museum of the Revolution in Maputo. His thrillers featuring UN investigator Valentin Vermeulen are published by Coffeetown Press. Legitimate Business and Illicit Trade were published in March 2017. Illegal Holdings came out in March 2018, and No Right Way went on sale in June 2019. Illegal Holdings won the 2019 Silver Falchion Award for Best Thriller at Killer Nashville. The fifth Vermeulen thriller, Percentages of Guilt is due for publication in 2020. His short stories have appeared in Vengeance, the 2012 Mystery Writers of America anthology edited by Lee Child, and Mysterical-E. "Africa Always Needs Guns" and "Big Dreams Cost Too Much" are now available as Kindle singles. "Some Kind of Justice" will follow soon. On the non-fiction side, he is the author of A Spatial Approach to Regionalism in the Global Economy (2000). His academic articles have appeared in numerous journals and several edited books. Copies are available on this website in the non-fiction section. Throughout his academic career, he has helped students of all ages and backgrounds to understand their role in constructing the world in which they live, and to take this role seriously. He grew up in a small town in western Germany before moving to the United States. He has studied at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Bonn, Germany, and the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver where he received his PhD in International Studies. He lives in southern Oregon with his dog Stanley.
