The Malt Mystery. George Bracke Thrillers, #6

A counterfeit bottle of Scotch whisky should have been a case of commercial fraud. For European police coordinator George Bracke, it becomes the beginning of something far more dangerous. When a man dies during a whisky tasting on the Dutch island of Texel, suspicion falls on a bottle of Glenturn single malt. Then several men collapse after drinking from another bottle in a Scottish pub. This time there can be no doubt: the whisky is genuine, but someone has deliberately poisoned it.
George is drawn deep into the closed world of Scottish distilleries, investors, collectors and whisky experts. At Glenturn itself, another murder reveals that a sophisticated counterfeiting operation has been running behind the scenes. Yet the fake whisky and the poisonings do not fit together as neatly as they should. Anonymous warnings, an old aristocratic family, a mysterious man caught only briefly on camera and a series of increasingly disturbing connections force George to reconsider everything he thinks he knows about the case.
Somewhere between obsession, tradition, greed and revenge lies the truth - and the next glass may already have been poured. Meanwhile, life in Ghent continues to change. Former police chief Werner Van Aken is trying to rebuild himself after a profound personal crisis, Omer Verlinden is discovering both the rewards and temptations of command, and George's daughter Julie is carrying a secret that will change the Bracke family forever.
The Malt Mystery is the sixth George Bracke thriller and follows Botero, Tango Mortale, Cold Fire, Kismet and Heavy Water. The novels combine European crime investigation with psychological tension, dry humour and the personal lives of characters who continue to evolve from book to book. Stefaan Van Laere is a Belgian author, journalist and publisher. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Dutch and in translation in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Italian.