George Bracke Thriller #10 – Knock-out

Book George Bracke Thriller #10 – Knock-out

Years have passed, and George Bracke’s life has changed dramatically. His marriage to Annemie is over, his international career lies behind him, and he has returned to the Ghent police as its chief.  Older and more reflective, but no less stubborn, Bracke is still driven by the same instinct that has guided him throughout his career: keep looking until the pieces fit.  When Mieke Tindemans is found murdered in her loft on the Muide in Ghent, the investigation quickly focuses on the people closest to her. Her apartment shows signs of a violent struggle, her cat is injured and several witnesses have reasons to conceal parts of the truth.  Her former husband Gerard Janssens soon attracts police attention. A successful businessman with an interest in boxing, motorcycles, whisky and unsolved crimes, he seems an obvious suspect.  George Bracke has learned, however, that obvious answers are often the most dangerous ones.  A night-time journey, a van, a pair of gloves and a series of small inconsistencies gradually begin to form a pattern. Then an explosion elsewhere in Ghent throws the city into turmoil and creates another investigation at exactly the wrong moment.  While pressure mounts, George must rely on both old allies and a younger generation of investigators to separate coincidence from calculation.  His private life is changing too. He is still carrying the loss of Gert and Saartje, Werner Van Aken is learning to live with Parkinson’s disease, and unexpected news from his daughter Julie forces George to consider that after so much loss, the future may still hold something new.  Knock-out brings the ten-book George Bracke series full circle. The investigation is firmly rooted in Ghent and combines classic police work with the personal story that has developed throughout the previous nine novels.  And when Bracke finally has the evidence he needs, the case is decided not by spectacle, but by one detail from which there is no convincing escape.  A knock-out. 

Short description 

The tenth and final George Bracke thriller. The murder of a woman on Ghent’s Muide draws George Bracke into a web of lies, grudges and carefully constructed alibis while his own life enters a new chapter.

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.