There is a series of mystery books that have a Dutch inspector solving them. He is married to a former Czech gymnast who has a bum leg. They have a daughter together. He smokes a lot, as does she and their marriage is not very good. He is an excellent inspector, however, who sometimes gets emotionally involved with his cases. In the final book, he is killed, unfortunately.
I would like to know the name of the author or at least the name of one of the books. I read these about ten years ago.
It sounds like you’re mixing two series by the same author. This article gives information about both:
https://www.weeklystandard.com/jon-l-breen/dutch-treat-4589
Possibly the Inspector Piet Van der Valk stories by Nicholas Freeling?
The Van der Valk books by Nicholas Freeling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Freeling
I don’t recall if his wife was a Czech gymnast (I’ve read only one of them, and that decades ago), but I suspect you’re thinking of the Van der Valk series by Nicholas Freeling.
It looks like you’re conflating two different series by the British author Nicolas Freeling. He wrote one series about a Dutch detective named Van der Valk, and another about a French detective named Henri Castang whose wife is a former Czech gymnast.
Sounds like the Van der Valk series by Nicholas Freeling.
I don’t remember the name, but I certainly do remember that the main character was killed off in the book! Very unusual turn of events and unsettling, even though I hadn’t read any other books in the series.
Realistic I guess, but I prefer my main characters to live!