Murder in Amsterdam by
Albert C. Baantjer
pbk out April 04
(Intrigue Press)
at £8.99
A.C.Baantjer, "the most widely read author in the Netherlands", was himself a
policeman for 38 years. So it's no surprise to find that when he took up his pen late in
his career, he chose as his detective a veteran policeman feeling both his age and the
pressure from his younger colleagues, well versed in theory but lacking in experience.
That detective was Inspector Dekok (changed from the original De Cock for the more
tender dispositions found this side of the English Channel). Often compared to
Maigret he is Maigret-like only in his psychological acuity and an un-named wife
(though with jugged hare rather than ragoût waiting on the stove).
Now available in a handsome new edition from Denver's Intrigue Press, Murder
in Amsterdam consists of two novellas, Dekok and the Sunday Strangler together with
Dekok and the Corpse on Christmas Eve. Strangler is an early effort (it dates from
1965). In it a disgruntled Dekok is recalled from a long awaited holiday by young
Vledder, just one such young officer, and who becomes Dekok's longstanding
sidekick. Dekok is to take the lead in investigating the clueless murder of a prostitute,
the first of three, in Amsterdam's anonymous red light district. Here at least, feels
Dekok, is a case where experience will get the better of theory.
But like many an early effort, the story suffers from too much information
(milieu, character, plot) for its 133 pages. Thus both tone and pacing are uncertain.
Even Dekok, whilst clearly a canny operator, his knowledge of the area invaluable, is
somewhat awkwardly outlined, with a distressing tendency for instance to lecture
Vledder, often with advice of surprising banality.
Much more successful is Corpse in which Vledder drags Dekok from his
impending Christmas celebrations to investigate the murder of another young woman,
her body found floating in one of Amsterdam's many canals. It is a case that enables
Dekok to explore a more bourgeois milieu and exhibit some of his more unorthodox
tendencies. And whilst both stories feature the occasional infelicities of H.G.
Smittenaar's translations (like a few translators he has trouble with street talk), here
the writing flows, the characters briefly but expertly outlined, the prose jaunty and
never dull and the mystery well developed.
According to Mike Ashley's invaluable Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction,
Corpse also belongs to 1965. But a dialogue reference to "the eighties" and the
occasional glimpse of a computer suggest that the copyright date of 1981 shown
inside this edition is the correct one. Bafflingly though, sixteen years on, Vledder is
still "so young, so inexperienced" Nevertheless this is a useful introduction to an
intriguing Dutch institution.
Murder in Amsterdam by
Albert C. Baantjer
