NIGHTWATCH

Identifying a three-year-old corpse through his dental records leads East Midlands Inspector Jacko Jackson into a thicket of dead men. When he disappeared together with Joe Vargas, American crime reporter Dwight Curtis was working on a story about Joe's brother Freddy, executed long years ago for his part in a robbery that left a copper dead. In a message via prison officer George Walker, Freddy told his brother that he recognized a doctor who appeared at his trial as the perpetrator of some hideous Nazi-style experiments—experiments that could well be continuing on Jacko's watch. But how can Jacko and his opposite number, Amsterdam cop Fran Van Acrie, identify the guilty doctor when Dwight and Freddy and Walker are all dead? Jacko's fifth case (Blood Brother, 1995, etc.) features solid detective work, but the death-within-death plotting makes it a bit of a slog for all but the most fanatical Nazi-hunters.