Kurt Aust’s new detective story, The Third Truth, features the Danish professor Thomas of Boueberge, and his neophyte assistant Petter Hortten, a young Norwegian.

Once again the crime and its solution are only part of the story. Of equal importance, perhaps, is the way the author conveys the thinking and philosophies that characterized the Nordic countries and continental Europe in the 18th century. Thomas and Petter are despatched to a landed estate in Jutland to investigate the death of a bailiff, Hans Halle. A man is arrested, but Thomas quickly concludes that he is innocent. Talks with local villagers and the people on the estate gradually lay bare the complex web of circumstances surrounding the murder.