Book Review: Murder in Amsterdam

Reviewed By: Cheryl - RAM

Murder in Amsterdam     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
A. C. Baantjer
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Dekok

This book includes two novellas 'DeKok and the Sunday Strangler' and 'DeKok and the Corpse on Christmas Eve', both featuring Inspector DeKok of the Amsterdam police. These are old-fashioned police procedurals, with a senior, somewhat eccentric detective and his younger sidekick.

The stories are somewhat reminiscent of Maigret, a senior police officer absorbed in his work and having a solid wife and home lurking somewhere in the background. DeKok is not an example of the damaged or isolated officer of some recent detective fiction. The stories are punctuated with philosophical reflections which appear to intrude into the story.

The best translations do not draw themselves to the readers' attention. Most readers, like me in this case, cannot judge the faithfulness of the translation to the original. However, we can note if the text does not read quite smoothly, without knowing if this is a reflection of the style of the original text, or instead, a result of the translation. In these stories, there were cases in which the language did not ring quite true. For example, the constant use of 'eh', jars, as does 'dactyloscopic service' for fingerprinting, or a few other words which simply do not seem to be the best choice in the context of the text.

These stories are probably be a good choice for fans of slightly old -fashioned police stories. Readers who enjoy cosies may be bothered by the gritty details, and those who like more modern police procedurals (with less philosophy and more gritty details) may prefer something else. As fairly traditional police stories, though, they work, especially if the reader isn't jarred by some of the language and phrasing.

Cheryl - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM