Effigies of Veenendaal

The life-sized wax saints of Veenendaal are supposed to stay on their pedestals. But as winter sets in, the abbey’s votive figures are turning their heads in the dark. Every morning, parish priests find life-sized effigies pointing stiff wax fingers at sealed alcoves, bricked-up cellars, and stagnant wells—and wherever they point, a murdered burgher is found concealed behind the stone.

Tymen van der Meer, the craftsman who carved the statues, knows there is nothing holy about his tallow. Teaming up with a foul-mouthed drainage dredger and an exhausted gravedigger, Tymen must untangle the intricate maze of counterweights, water-lines, and human malice operating behind the plaster before his own likeness is set up to point at his door.