George Bracke Thriller #5 – Heavy Water

Book George Bracke Thriller #5 – Heavy Water

 Three Swedish engineers are murdered in three different countries. The method is identical, but at first there seems to be no connection between the victims.

Four months into his new role as a European police coordinator, George Bracke is confronted with his first major international investigation. One man dies in Belgium, another in Portugal and a third in Wales. All three have been poisoned with arsenic.

The victims appear to have nothing in common.

As Bracke brings together investigators from several European countries, the trail begins to lead backwards through history — all the way to the Second World War.

A forgotten file reveals that the fathers of the three murdered men once worked at Vemork in occupied Norway, where the production of heavy water played a crucial role in Nazi Germany’s nuclear ambitions.

What happened there decades ago was supposed to remain buried.

Someone, however, has not forgotten.

From Ghent to Scandinavia, Britain and Portugal, Bracke finds himself investigating a case in which science, wartime secrets, ambition and murder become dangerously intertwined. The deeper he digs into the past, the clearer it becomes that the killings may involve much more than simple revenge.

Heavy Water is the fifth George Bracke thriller, following Botero, Tango Mortale, Cold Fire and Kismet. The novel expands Bracke’s world beyond Belgium and places him at the centre of an international investigation rooted in one of the most intriguing episodes of the Second World War.

Each novel in the ten-book series contains a complete investigation and can be read independently, while George Bracke, his family and his colleagues continue to develop throughout the series.

Short description

The fifth George Bracke thriller. Three Swedish engineers are murdered in three countries, leading George Bracke to a wartime secret involving Norway, Nazi nuclear research and the deadly legacy of heavy water.

 Stefaan Van Laere is a Belgian author, journalist and publisher who has been writing professionally since 1988. Over more than three decades, he has published fiction and non-fiction across a wide range of genres, including crime, historical fiction, biography, sport, social commentary, food and drink, and technology.

He is the founder and publisher of Partizaan and previously worked as editor-in-chief of Seniorennet.be. He is also a contributor to Boomager, a Belgian platform aimed at readers who approach later life with curiosity, independence and humour.

His books have appeared in Dutch and in translations including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Italian.

The ten George Bracke thrillers combine police investigation, psychological tension and dry humour with the personal lives of characters who continue to evolve throughout the series.