Belgian writer Pieter Aspe, known for his crime novels with Commissioner Pieter Van In and Deputy Prosecutor Hannelore Martens as the main protagonists, died on Saturday 1 May in a hospital in Bruges at the age of 68. For some time he had suffered from a poor state of health, first due to repeated heart problems and for over a year to pulmonary failure.
In 2018 he founded his own publishing house, Aspe Nv, which spread the news of his disappearance. Born as Pierre Aspeslag in Bruges on April 3, 1953, he was a tutor, photographer, wine merchant, seller of grains and cereals, keeper of a basilica, employed in a textile company and seasonal worker for the maritime police. He made his debut as a mystery writer in 1995 with “The square of revenge”, where the melancholy and irascible Flemish commissioner Van In appears, with a caustic sense of humor: a lover of art, cigars, beer and beautiful women have no equal in solving the most intricate cases.
In 2001 Aspe won the Hercule Poirot prize for best Flemish crime writer. He is the author of 32 novels. In Italy Fazi Editore has published “The square of revenge” (2009), “The masks of the night” (2010), “Chaos in Bruges” (2010), “The fourth form of Satan” (2011), “Blue blood” (2014), “The Dreyse Case” (2015) and “Malco’s Ear” (2017). His detective novels, also adapted for TV, have been translated into ten languages and have sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide: as well as in Italy they have been published in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic and the United States.