The Japanese Corpse

E' un vero peccato che van de Wetering sia un autore poco conosciuto, perché le sue trame sono divertentissime e avvincenti e i suoi poliziotti quanto di meglio si possa trovare sulla piazza del noir internazionale.
Anche questa volta, in occasione di una avventura a cavallo tra l'Olanda e il Giappone, i personaggi sono squinternati al punto giusto, e il cumulo enorme di qui pro quo, incomprensioni e pasticci conduce irresistibilmente all'elegante soluzione finale.
Adorabile.

The strangest entry so far in a very strange detective series. No real mystery, but an off-kilter Zen sensibility permeates the plot, which I found to be more an emotional story than simply a crime to be solved. Van de Wetering is unique.

Not your father's mystery novel: Yes, van de Wettering is a plodding writer. Yes, his detectives don't do much detecting in this book.But give him credit for his strengths, including characterization, and for even attempting the bizarre marriage of Zen and the mystery novel. If you want a Dutch-flavored detective, read Baantjer. In Van de Wettering's books, the cops are far too unearthly to be nailed down to a specific locale; the Netherlands is just as good a place as any to borrow street names from. All that said, "The Japanese Corpse" is not his best effort. He does seem quite uncomfortable trying to navigate the Japanese scenes, and character motivation is either too blunt (girlfriend and cat die, therefore you punch out punks who show more are torturing another kitty) or essentially nonexistent. show less

I've come to like Van de Wetering for the zen-like quality of his books, not the mystery per se. I thought the depiction of Japan and the way zen infuses the lives of the various characters, both practitioners and not, was very good.

A yakuza art dealer goes missing in Amsterdam. The detectives must travel to Japan to find out the mystery. Very good book, but strangely dated.

This is the second book by this author that I've read and I've decided I do not like this author. He/she is very choppy and short with their chapters and thoughts. The book ended just out of nowhere with no real conclusion. I won't be reading them again. I'm glad I got them at the thrift store.

This is the second book by this author that I've read and I've decided I do not like this author. He/she is very choppy and short with their chapters and thoughts. The book ended just out of nowhere with no real conclusion. I won't be reading them again. I'm glad I got them at the thrift store.