The Man Who Hated History — Donald Dewey

The Man Who Hated History is a suspense novel that borrows from both whodunnit and psychological mystery genres to fashion a political whowuzitdunto. French police inspector Robert Frenaud, as meticulous about his image of middle-class respectability as he is about his professional investigations, is intrigued when academic firebrand Mario Salerno shows up in his office inquiring about the recent suicide of an American painter. Intrigue turns into suspicion when Salerno admits he never knew the painter. Soon enough Frenaud has convinced himself that other lives may be in jeopardy, and is off through Denmark, Italy, and Holland in what he views as a deadly race with Salerno. Only when he reaches the end of his obsessive pursuit (and the discovery of another body) does Frenaud realize that Mario Salerno isn't the man who hated history.