Crime writer Pieter Aspe on 20 years of fictional frenzy
Acclaimed Bruges writer Pieter Aspe took a circuitous route to get there but is now firmly established as Flanders’ most popular author of crime fiction
No plans to stop
Aspe had taken a wide array of jobs – salesman, maritime police officer, clerk, furniture restorer, photographer – before ending up as a concierge in the Basilica of the Holy Blood in his home town of Bruges, where he started writing his debut novel.
“I worked as a concierge for 11 years,” he says, “and on a hot summer’s evening in the garden of the chapel, I decided to write a book. Just me, two pieces of paper, a pen and a Duvel. The result was Het vierkant van de wraak, which was originally called Het vierkant van de tempeliers, inspired by a BBC documentary.”
When the novel was finished, he continues, “I just looked up publishers in the telephone book”.
The only one he recognised was Manteau, which published the work of Flemish crime author Jef Geeraerts. Manteau had financial problems at the time and soon merged with Meulenhof, but it took a leap of faith with this unknown author who would go on to sell more than three million books, returning the publishing house to rude health and launching Aspe’s successful career.
Bruges: City of psychopaths
Aspe’s novels revolve around Chief Inspector Pieter Van In, who, with public prosecutor Hannelore Martens – who later becomes his wife – solves grisly murders in and around Bruges. The books have a fixed cast of characters, helping the reader empathise with their trials and tribulations as they hunt the latest psychopath.
Van In soon achieved cult status as a loveable grump who women swoon over, aided by his portrayal by actor Herbert Flack in the successful VTM television series Aspe, which was based on some of Aspe’s books. Sales rocketed further.
I didn’t write the screenplays. Not even the episodes that were inspired by my books
“We created a kind of rule book for the show, which documents the traits and personalities of the characters,” Aspe explains. “But that’s it; I didn’t write the screenplays. Not even the episodes that were inspired by my books.”
Besides 34 novels starring Van In, Aspe has also written four stand-alone novellas and two young adult novels.
Aspe is a disciplined worker, admitting that he writes four pages a day, six days a week from eight in the morning until midday. And yet he never knows where the story will take him.
“I start with an idea, and then I just start writing,” he says. “I’m very impulsive. Along the way I create questions that I have to answer. If I planned everything in advance, there wouldn’t be much fun in writing it.” The result is two books a years, one in the spring and one in the autumn, just in time for Antwerp’s annual Boekenbeurs, or book fair, where he is a regular guest.
US success
“I want to write books that sell, because sales equal readers, and what author doesn’t want to be read?” he once said. As of last year, his first two novels, Het vierkant van de wraak and De Midasmoorden (The Midas Murders), have been released in the US, published by Pegasus Books, making Aspe the first Flemish crime writer to achieve success across the Atlantic.
As well as charming the global public, Aspe charmed the critics when he received the Hercule Poirot Prize, an annual literary prize for the best Flemish crime novel. He won it in 2001 for Zoenoffer (Sacrifice) and again in 2010 for his entire oeuvre.
I love writing and don’t really consider it work
His latest novel, (Pijn)³ ((Pain)3), starts with a video message from a bound and bloody man – played by Aspe himself in the promotional teaser – that arrives at the Bruges police station. The man, also called Van In, says he’ll be dead within the week if police don’t find him, making the challenge hit close to home.
The victim in the next message has the same name as one of Van In’s colleagues. Assuming the killer only targets namesakes, who will be next? In (Pijn)³ things get personal and very, very gruesome. He was inspired, he says, by “The Judgement of Cambyses”, a painting by 15th-century artist Gerard David that hangs in Bruges’ Groeninge Museum, “in which a judge is tied to a wooden beam and skinned alive”.
The book’s launch took place in the same garden where Aspe started writing his debut novel 20 years ago, a garden not normally open to the public. That made it a unique event at a time where it’s hard for books to gain publicity. That’s also the reason behind the video teaser.
Despite Van In’s close shave in (Pijn)³, Aspe isn’t planning on stopping any time soon; he’s having way too much fun. “I love writing and don’t really consider it work,” he says. “As long as I’m able to, I’ll keep going.” His next novel, Zonder voorschrift (Without a Prescription), will be published in October.
Fresh fiction
Onderhuids (Under the Skin)
Luc Deflo & Aloka Liefrink ● Borgerhoff en Lamberigts
Crime writer Luc Deflo has joined forces with Belgo-Indian author Aloka Liefrink, resulting in a thriller with the usual Deflo pizzazz spiced up with a dash of passion and a hint of femininity. Masha has to assist Felix on her first day with the Hasselt police. A young woman has been strangled in her apartment, and it’s soon clear she’s not the last. Onderhuids combines murder, passion and longing but sadly never really rises to the occasion. ★★☆☆
Charly
Patrick De Bruyn ● Manteau
Charlotte, aka Charly, who first appeared in De Bruyn’s award-winning novel Dodelijk verlangen (Fatal Desire), turns 18 and meets the beautiful Allison at university. Their relationship is rambunctious to say the least. When Charly takes Allison to her childhood home and finds a young couple living there, the past creeps up on them – especially when Charly sees their young daughter. Suspense, revenge and razor-sharp analysis of the human psyche drive this explosive thriller. ★★★☆
De boekhandelaar (The Book Seller)
Chris Ceustermans ● Manteau
Journalist Chris Ceustermans’ debut novel is an ode to love, literature and transience in this digital age. Days after Johan’s wife, Anne, dies, he finds an email from her lover. Desperate to know more, he answers, pretending to be Anne, and finds out they had been planning on opening a book shop together. Without letting on that Anne is dead, he proceeds with the plan, but how long can he keep on living a double life? Quirky but fascinating, De boekhandelaar will have you on the edge of your seat. ★★★☆
About the author
