Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 56, No. 2. Whole No. 321, August 1970

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The fifth in Nicolas Freeling’s new series about Van der Valk, Chief Inspector of Amsterdam’s Juvenile Brigade — the story of a teen-age wolfpack that has more than a dozen charges of robbery with violence and of armed attack in their dossier, and of Van der Valk’s deeper concern, of his involvement with people. Van der Valk gives a damn…

“A Wolfpack,” said Chief Inspector Van der Valk, only half frivolous.

“Collect your mind,” answered Commissaire Boersma. “Assemble what you know about wolves and take a few steps. Complaints are arriving in this office at a rate I can no longer disregard.”

Van der Valk picked up an ominously thick dossier and put it under his arm.

What did he know about wolves? That, secretly, he liked them. He was on their side; but come, come, he said to himself, I am a shepherd; this won’t do. Jean de la Fontaine, he suspected, was also on their side: even when he related their most alarming habits, didn’t he hint at a mocking, barely hidden friendship? Or was it that La Fontaine simply understood wolves?

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