Death of a Hawker

Amsterdam police officers Grijpstra and De Gier find themselves dealing with a strange murder that took place whilst most of their colleagues were busy dealing with the famous Nieuwmarkt riots. The victim has a certain resemblance to the author, a clever young man who has dropped out of academic life to meditate philosophies of life and become a wheeler-dealer trader on the Albert Cuyp market. He seems to be well-loved, but not well enough to protect him from being murdered with an exotic weapon as he looks out of the window of a locked room.

As usual, the detectives spend more time discussing philosophy and history than actually investigating, and police life intervenes in random ways as well. And the mystery is solved in a bizarre Zen show more way that seems to break quite a few rules of the genre. But it’s all good fun, in a very laid-back seventies way. show less

It is riot time in Amsterdam again. It is summer and there are screaming mobs, flying bricks, howling fanatics, exploding gas grenades, soapstone powder, bleeding faces, and the sirens of ambulances and police vehicles. Esther Rogge rings the police station to say that her brother Abe is dead on the floor and his head is all bloody.
The nearest police are on the other side of the riots and it takes Detective Sergeant de Gier and Adjutant Grijpstra nearly an hour to get to her, largely on foot. It appears that the dead man has been killed by a round object studded with spikes that has smashed every bone in his face. But neither his sister not the upstairs lodger heard anything before discovering his body. They of course are the prime show more suspects but neither appear to be likely murderers.

The dead man was known as the King of the Albert Cuyp street market, a dealer in beads, cloth, and haberdashery, and their search for his enemies take de Gier and Grijpstra into a disconcerting, for de Gier at least, world of prostitutes and market stalls. There will be one more death before they finally work out who killed Abe Rogge.

This is #4 in van de Wetering's Amsterdam Cops series, and the first that I have read. The investigation is led by a commissaris plagued wuth rheumatics. "A policeman is a hunter" says the commissaris. "We observe, connect, conclude and apprehend", he says, as he tries to instruct both de Gier and Grijpstra in the art of good detection.

This is the first of this series that I have read. The style is very different to modern police procedurals, with more in common with Glauser and Simenon. There are little background snippets, like the reasons for the riots, the man who has a heart attack and drops dead in the hospital emergency waiting room, the two thousand guilders that become saturated by a cup of coffee accidentally tipped into the cash box, de Gier's nightmares, Gripjstra's liaison with the prostitute Nellie, and the seething mass of toads on the road near the canal bank, that all add atmosphere. show less

I have enjoyed several of this strangely addictive series, mostly for the memories of a beautiful city, but also the craftsmanship of the author in creating and rounding-out his marvelous characters.
However, by this book, about number five or six, there seems to be a certain touch of casualness creeping into Van De Wetering’s strong writing. Perhaps, in his personal Zen philosophy the author is turning away from a created reality and enjoying his ability to enchant and amuse us, and is beginning instead to laugh at us, instead of with us?
It would be better if this is not your first read of the Amsterdam detective series … perhaps a gentler introduction to the moods and plot twisting, the practice of induced meditation and the spiky show more humour is needed with any of the earlier works.

It used to be said of modern jazz that it was music for the experienced listener …. show less

Zen what?: Do not make this the first van de Wetering book you read.It takes some getting used to, this mix of Buddhism, police procedural, Simenon-like psychonovel and bizarre imagination. In this book, those factors collide sharply. The solution the the pseudo-locked-room mystery is odd, at best. Mix in street riots and a strange interlude where police do a most unconvincing undercover act and the reader who expected something like the 87th Precinct transplanted to Amsterdam will be baffled by the strength of the cover blurbs. Praise for this? But if you've already become familiar with the characters, you know these books aren't so much about the plot as the people and the mood. Read a few others first (make sure you start with the show more good ones, the ones based in Amsterdam) and then move on. show less

There is rioting in Amsterdam and the police are out in force. A call comes in that a woman has discovered the dead body of her brother with his head smashed in. Grijpstra and De Gier are dispatched to investigate,but getting to the scene proves difficult,as they have to negotiate the rioting. When they do finally get there they find that not only has the weapon disappeared,but that it must have been something that they describe as a 'good-day' ! (a spiked ball) Their chief,the Commissaris joins them in their hunt for the killer,
As with most of the books in this series,it is the by-play between the three policemen and their home-life that is the most interesting part . There is the old Commissaris who suffers from terrible pains of show more rheumatics bought on by his imprisonment by the Nazis in the War. de Gier,who lives with his cat Oliver. Gripstra who,tries to escape his fat and snoring wife by working at every hour he can.
'Death of a Hawker' adds quite a few more facets to what is already known about these three characters and this tale is one of the best in the whole series. show less

Amsterdam ist normalerweise ruhig, aber heute gibt es einen Aufstand auf dem Newmarket Square. Polizisten haben den ganzen Tag den Zugang zur angrenzenden Straight Tree Graben Road blockiert. Als die Leiche des "Königs" des örtlichen Straßenmarktes mit eingeschlagenem Kopf in einem Raum seines Hauses in dieser Straße gefunden wird, gibt es nur zwei Verdächtige: seine reizende Schwester oder die Nachbarin im Obergeschoss. Welcher von beiden ist der Mörder? Grijipstra und de Gier müssen die Identität des Mörders herausfinden, bevor ein weiteres Verbrechen begangen werden kann.

Tod eines Falkners ist der vierte in der international gefeierten Serie Amsterdam Cops.