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Thirteen stories feature Amsterdam police detectives Henk Grijpstra and Rinus de Gier trying to solve mysteries and see that, even if arrests are not made, justice is done.Tags
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Member Reviews
van de W. had fun writing this. After reading the book, I didn't feel like I know his two cops well, but I did get a great sense of the sly writer who plays with us readers and his city, too. And especially with the characters he concocts to commit crimes or maybe help the lonely cop.
I called this a police procedural but the two cops are not very police-like (they do shoot people, but somewhat arbitrarily), their procedures usually are no more than guesses, and the mysteries are not very difficult. But the book is easy on the brain and enjoyable. Just don't expect anything noir.
I called this a police procedural but the two cops are not very police-like (they do shoot people, but somewhat arbitrarily), their procedures usually are no more than guesses, and the mysteries are not very difficult. But the book is easy on the brain and enjoyable. Just don't expect anything noir.
De Wetering could have taken any two of these charming little tales, and, with his sheer craftsmanship, formed one of his delightful books from them. Instead we readers have a fine collection of 'memories' and classical "Who done Its?" of our favorite detectives in our favorite Dutch city. A joy to his faithful followers and a great 'starter' book for a new-entry readership.
More zen meditations on human foibles than actual mysteries, I enjoyed these as I was reading them, but probably won't return to them.
This is a collection of stories about the Amsterdam detectives, Grijpstra and de Gier, and I found the stories weaker than the novels, which I loved, especially the stories told by other characters. Those stories attempted to get inside the head of a murderer or other person and only peripherally involved the detectives and their circle of other cops, including the Commisaris who I love dearly. So a few good stories, a few not so good, and with that I come to the end of the van de Wetering tales. I am sorry that this is so.
This is a collection of 13 short stories which involve the two cops from the Amsterdam series,Henk Grijpstra and Rinusde de Gier. These stories fill in a few gaps left from the excellent novels and although not quite so gripping as the full-length stories,are most certainly worth the trouble of reading.
The characters in this series are hilarious. I can't figure out why these books haven't been made into a film yet.
I always like visiting Amsterdam via these books and this author.
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Published Reviews
n 1999 van de Wetering published a collection of thirteen short stories featuring Grijpstra and de Gier, written over a sixteen-year period. A Publishers Weekly reviewer expressed disappointment in the stories, finding them to be "koan-like vignettes in which, for the most part, the police solve crimes through intuition rather than by analyzing clues." Allowing that van de Wetering created show more "witty plots and eccentric characters" in his novels, and that his books on Zen are "quirky and engaging," the reviewer nonetheless concluded that The Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories is "disappointing." A very different assessment of the same collection is offered by Bill Ott in Booklist. He credited van de Wetering with bridging "the gap between the big-brained European sleuths of the old school." Ott concluded that van de Wetering never fails "to isolate those moments of sheer human oddity that unlock the emotional lives of his characters." show less
added by John_Vaughan
Author Information
94+ Works 6,398 Members
Janwillem Van de Wetering was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands on February 12, 1931. He traveled extensively, both geographically and philosophically, his adventures ranging from being a motorcycle gang member to a Buddhist, a real estate salesman in Australia to an exporter in Holland. He was a police officer in Amsterdam from 1966 to 1975 and his show more crime novels featuring detectives Grijpstra and De Gier were based on his experiences. He also wrote a trilogy based on the time he spent at a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery and wrote children's books about a porcupine named Hugh Pine. In 1984, he received the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He died on July 4, 2008 at the age of 77. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Rinus de Gier; Henk Grijpstra
- Important places
- Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands; The Netherlands; North Holland, Netherlands
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 100
- Popularity
- 320,622
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (4.16)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
