Night Market

Starred review from August 28, 2017
A complex protagonist, who can’t always be taken at his word, distinguishes Pembrey’s bleak, convoluted sequel to The Harbour Master. In “Night Market,” the first of the novel’s three sections, Amsterdam police detective Henk van der Pol goes undercover in Driebergen to try to unmask the crooked cop who leaked information about an operation to take down highly placed child abusers. “Choke Point,” part two, is set mainly in the gloomy Amsterdam docklands, where crime and respectability are “close neighbors.” “The Release,” the final section, turns van der Pol’s whole narrative upside down when his wife, Petra, makes him realize that his personal vendetta against Amsterdam police commissioner Joost van Erven is really about himself, not Joost. Pembrey excels at revealing the psychological price police pay for investigating child pornography while sparing the reader the sordid details. That extreme right-wing elements have a hand in much of the villainy makes this outing especially timely.