Big Dreams Cost Too Much

United Nations Investigator Valentin Vermeulen has been sent to a peacekeeping mission in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. After falsely accusing a higher-up at the UN, he is relegated to ferret out a suspected fraud in the miserably wet, politically volatile city of Yamoussoukro. A large amount of fuel has gone unaccounted for, and the culprit seems to be a petty bureaucrat named Khoury. But after Vermeulen confronts the man, he is shot and his death declared a suicide.
Vermeulen knows Khoury's death was no suicide. He heard the gunshot and saw a young thug leave Khoury's office. The suicide note did not appear until later. Vermeulen's search for answers takes him to the offices of a beautiful widow, Desiree Doue, who runs a cocoa export company. For security, Madame Doue employs a group of young hoodlums known as the Jeunes Patriotes, and Khoury's killer is one of them. Obviously someone in the UN is in league with her, but with the city's politics in disarray, how will Vermeulen stop the perpetrators and remain alive? Fortunately he has an ally, Kwame Appiah, a member of UN troops with a trick or two up his sleeve.
"Big Dreams Cost Too Much" is one of three stories featuring Valentin Vermeulen. The UN investigator is also featured in the novels Legitimate Business, Illicit Trade, and Illegal Holdings (March 2018).


Genre: Mystery