Amsterdam barst uit zijn voegen tijdens de intocht van Sinterklaas. Rechercheur Pieter Vos heeft samen met zijn jonge assistent Laura Bakker dienst als er op het Leidseplein een granaat ontploft. In de chaos die volgt wordt een meisje in ontvoerd. Alleen hebben de terroristen niet de dochter van een rijk Amsterdams echtpaar, maar die van een prostituee uit Georgië te pakken.Gedurende het onderzoek worden de motieven van de terroristen duidelijk. Vos en Bakker stuiten op een samenzwering die van de Wallen tot de top van de veiligheidsdienst reikt. En ondertussen is er nog de ontvoering van dat achtjarige meisje, weggerukt van haar wanhopige moeder. Wat is het leven van een meisje waard in een steeds groter wordend politiek steekspel?
DAVID HEWSON was born in Yorkshire in 1953. His books range from the Nic Costa series set in Italy to adaptations of The Killing in Copenhagen and the Pieter Vos series in Amsterdam. He's adapted Shakespeare for Audible and in 2018 won the Audie for best original work for Romeo and Juliet: A Novel, narrated by Richard Armitage. 2019 sees the release of a new, full-cast Audible drama set in New York, Last Seen Wearing, and a standalone novel set in the Faroe Islands, Devil's Fjord.
Ik las met enorm veel plezier het eerste boek in deze serie en ook het 2de boek over Pieter Vos en de Amsterdamse recherche ontgoochelde niet. Het boek begint met de intocht van Sinterklaas en zijn Zwarte Pieten in Amsterdam. Het is net in de periode dat de eerste protesten tegen Zwarte Piet begonnen en men verwacht dan ook weinig of geen problemen. Maar er worden 2 flitsgranaten gegooid en een 8-jarig meisje wordt ontvoerd. Maar het is niet het beoogde kind van rijke ouders dat verdwijnt, maar het dochtertje van een Georgische prostituee. De ontvoerders eisen de vrijlating van een terreurverdachte die op het punt staat om uitgeleverd te worden. Er is al direkt heibel tussen de AVID en de lokale politie. Zoals steeds bij Hewson zijn lopen er een aantal verhalen door elkaar. De grootvader van het niet ontvoerde kind is een in opspraak geraakte generaal die bij de vredesmacht in Srebrenica zat, de vader is een activist voor allerlei groene en linkse doelen. Een Turkse pooier probeert de Georgische vor hem te laten werken. De inlichtingendienst heeft zijn eigen agenda. Al deze zaken hebben natuurlijk met elkaar te maken op het eind. Een deel van de ontknoping had ik al zien aankomen, maar het was spannend tot op het laatst. Hoe het uiteindelijk uitdraait voor de pooier vond ik wel heel bevredigend.
Pieter Vos is een fatsoenlijk man die als rechercheur gevangen zit in een systeem dat in zijn ogen vaak te kort schiet. Hij kan niet goed orders opvolgen en gaat liever z’n eigen gang en meestal slaagt hij er ook nog in om de zaak op te lossen. Laura Bakker is ondertussen in vaste dienst gekomen en onderdeel van Pieters team. Ze voelt zich al wat beter thuis in Amsterdam en op het bureau in de Marnixstraat. Ook haar kledingstijl is moderner geworden. Als geen ander weet Hewson hoe hij al de draden tussen misdaad, politiek, ordediensten en menselijk leed moet door elkaar weven en opnieuw ontwarren. Sommige zaken zijn misschien een beetje meer voorspelbaar dan in het vorige boek, maar van andere keek ik toch wel op. Ik ga nu op zoek naar het volgende boek over Pieter en Laura. Het is ook leuk om eens een boek te lezen over een stad die je kent, al kom ik er niet zo vaak. Wie had in 2004 kunnen denken dat de Zwarte Piet haters ooit de bovenhand zouden krijgen? Alsof iemand ooit heeft gedacht, nou het is Sinterklaas laten we even racistisch gaan doen. En nu doen bedrijven als Facebook (waar jihadisten wel propaganda kunnen voeren) en Bol.com (die wel sekspoppen van kinderen verkopen) er ook aan mee. Ik moet zeggen dat Hewson de controverse rond Zwarte Piet mooi in kaart heeft gebracht. Ook voor de rest weet hij de Nederlandse samenleving goed weer te geven. Toch niet zo gemakkelijk voor iemand die er niet zo heel lang heeft gewoond. Een ander actueel maar controversieel vraagstuk: weegt het leven van 1 onschuldig kind op tegen het uitschakelen van een terreurcel die nog ontelbare eveneens onschuldige slachtoffers kunnen maken? Het is een vraag waarop ik geen eenduidig antwoord kan geven, als moeder denk je ja maar als maatschappij moet je misschien anders handelen. Het is een keuze die ik hopelijk nooit zal moeten maken. Nu is Nederland, gelukkig voor hen, tot op heden gespaard gebleven van grootschalige aanslagen, maar in België hebben we daar wel mee af te rekenen.
Wederom een goede thriller. Omdat de personages al bekend waren en ik deel 1 nog niet zolang geleden gelezen heb, zat ik meteen in het verhaal. Ook gebeurt er meteen al van alles. Het boek is erg spannend en daarom moest het gisteren ook uit. Ik kon niet langer wachten op de ontknoping. Het enige nadeel vond ik dat de hoofdstukken vrij lang zijn, waardoor ik niet altijd van hoofdstuk naar hoofdstuk kon lezen. Wat ik graag doe. Toch is het boek een aanrader. Binnenkort deel 3 bij de bibliotheek halen.
This is the author's 2nd novel (after "The House of Dolls) to feature Amsterdam police detective Pieter Vos. He's a smart, gentle man dealing with the fallout from learning the fate of his kidnapped daughter in the first book. He's back at work but still living on a dilapidated houseboat with Sam, a scruffy terrier with strong opinions. In this outing, it all begins when he & his team are working the annual Sinterklaas parade. A child goes missing. Parents Henk & Renata Kuyper are understandably distraught when they can't find the pretty blonde girl in the pink coat. In another part of the crowd a prostitute named Hanna Bublik is assaulted. When she regains consciousness, she realizes her daughter is missing. She's terrified when she can't find the pretty blonde girl in the pink coat. Hmmm.... Pieter & colleagues Laura & Dirk are soon swept up in a twisty case that resembles one of those Russian dolls. With each discovery another layer is revealed that complicates their race to save a little girl. And it's not just the "bad" guys who are causing problems. The AIVD (security & intelligence service) swoops in & takes over the case. They're led by a cold, humourless woman with one objective: the capture of a known terrorist with ties to the people involved in the kidnapping. If a little girl gets caught in the crossfire....oh well. Vos is effectively kicked off the case but following orders has never been his strong suit. He knows how it feels to lose a daughter & quietly goes his own way, putting him in the path of terrorists, undercover agents & a creepy pimp with a high "eeww" factor.
The plot is smart & complex with no shortage of red herrings or villains on both sides of the law. The author has created characters that are sharply drawn & evoke strong feelings. Some you'll feel for, some are in need of a good thumping. But all of them have secrets & it's not 'til the end that we discover who some of them actually are. This tense story will have you turning the pages as fast as you can to see who is left standing. You desperately want to see a couple of them get what they karmically deserve. But in one case, the shocking conclusion was an incident I can honestly say I never saw coming. This is a thinking man's thriller with a sympathetic & likeable main character. While it's not necessary to have read the first book, you'll get more out of this one if you know the back story (not to mention it's a darn good read). Put me on the list for #3.
Also the second book of the Detective Pieter Vos series was exciting. This time prostitution and terrorism are at the center. It shows wonderfully when the intelligence service and the police should work together, but everyone tries to protect their own territory, that in the end there are more deaths to report. Vos and his team notice during a meeting that a girl has disappeared. Who is this girl and why is she and not another girl of the same age who is wearing also a pink jacket? It quickly becomes clear that the missing girl is the daughter of a Georgian prostitute who is illegally staying in Amsterdam. While Vos, his team and the mother are trying to find the girl, the secret sevice has quite different plans. It seems that a terror cell is behind the disappearance. The girl serves as a hostage to free one of their own. For the secret service, the girl is only colletal damage while for Vos and his team only the girl is important. That this does not necessarily end well, is obvious.
I enjoyed this for the most part, but there were a few small factual errors that really grated, especially because they were repeated many times (example: Kruidnoten are not spicy. They are sweet and full of flavour because they're packed with spices like ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. The closest thing flavour-wise the UK has are gingernut biscuits. But kruidnoten are sooooo much nicer ;) ).
It's odd, because some things seem researched well, but in others Hewson is way off the mark. I suspect he got most of his info from google, and having done a quick experiment myself, I can confirm Google is almost always WAY off the mark when it comes to Dutch culture and traditions. If you want to know about those, ask a Dutch person, Google is not your friend, lol. (Just in case anyone was wondering, Sinterklaas is not father Christmas, and has nothing to do with the Christmas festivities - which traditionally has never been a commercial enterprise in the Netherlands, but a religious one, though recently more and more people have started to give gifts - Conversely though, the idea of Santa Claus was influenced by the traditions of the Dutch settlers in the US. So though Sinterklaas has nothing to do with Christmas, Santa does derive from Sinterklaas.)
Anyway... Besides those little annoyances, which will only bother those in the know, this was an ok read, a little predictable, but competent enough. I'll continue with the series for now.
Oh, and one other thing..? Why the heck does every single person in this book seem to eat croissants for breakfast? The almost 2 decades I lived there I never once even saw a croissant. I'm sure some people do eat them, but it's far from the staple breakfast food this book makes it out to be, lol.
I really enjoyed this book from first to last, having previously read and loved the Nic Costa novels, the author has now turned his attention to Amsterdam and Pieter Vos. You get a great sense of place with this book as much a character as the detectives, what starts as a simple and apparent kidnapping gone wrong soon leads to a race against time to release a child apparently kidnapped by mistake. The author has a great way of telling a story that draws the reader in from the get go, the story flows as the pace quickens keeping you guessing until the end.
I don't often give a five star rating to a book - only to those I will again and perhaps again. This one of those books. A real page turner. A book that held my interest from page one. For a police story it doesn't get much better than this. I say this after reading " The Killing" . I could not put this book down.
Second book in the Pieter Vos series set in Amsterdam. I'm a great fan of David Hewsons books, and loved the Nic Costa series set in Rome.
I enjoyed the first book in the Amsterdam series (The house of dolls) and the second book is even better. Good plot, enough suspense and likeable characters.
This was gripping but oh so complex - a simple kidnapping mixed up with terrorist gangs, top level security causes , paedophile rings, prostitution and controlling pimps- international fear- and set in Holland. Took a while to acclimatise to the Dutch names and to work out who everyone was. Took longer to piece together who was good and who had. The central detective , Vos was a likeable maverick and his character was interesting , especially his grim determination to find the missing girl. Determination mirrored in his terrier! He had a humanity that stood out amid the otherwise obfuscated operations where no one really knew what was going on! I liked it but it wasn’t an easy read! 3.5 *
I liked this book, David Hewson seems to be able to place you in his setting each time he writes a book. He's able to make all his characters feel like real people with all their bad traits, Bakker always dropping something.
I am not normally a reader of fiction but I can't resist anything remotely connected to Amsterdam. After reading 'The House of Dolls' I was hooked on the life of those stationed at Police HQ on Marnixstraat in general, the complicated character of Brigadier Piet Vos in particular and David Hewson's ability to actually take the reader into the city's streets and life. 'House of Dolls' was outstanding, 'The Wrong Girl' takes things up another notch. Great characters, Vos, Bakker, de Groot and van der Berg all in some way flawed personalities but so believable as police officers trying to unravel (in this case the most complicated) crime in the city. Incredible plot woven so well that every page was a different direction the reader had to take. Superb. A must read. About to start 'Little Sister' this afternoon. Thank you David Hewson
2e boek van David Hewson dat zich in Amsterdam afspeelt. Pieter Vos en Laura Bakker krijgen dit keer te maken met de ontvoering van een meisje. Lange tijd blijft onduidelijk wat er precies aan de hand is, waarom het meisje ontvoert is en door wie. Het feit dat de AIVD zich er mee bemoeit maakt het oplossen van deze zaak niet eenvoudiger. Je kunt wel merken dat Hewson zich goed georiënteerd heeft in Amsterdam. Hij weet de verschillende plaatsen van handeling goed te beschrijven. Dat geeft een geweldige couleur locale aan het hele boek. Met rode oortjes gelezen.
I haven't read book one but just enough detail was given about past events to understand the protagonist Detective Pieter Vos....I'm still intrigued though. Great story with wonderful characters, I especially liked Hanna Bublik, she really stole the show! It's fast paced and twisty, although I did need to concentrate with it being based in Amsterdam...unfamiliar names, places, culture etc. Fabulous ending. I'll probably need to read book one now and find out more about the interesting and passionate Detective Vos, he definitely grew on me throughout the investigation.
I would have given it 5*****, but for the slim unbelievable co-incidence in the denouement and a far-fetched turn in the behaviour of two characters. Perhaps we want too much: subtlety as well as excitement.
It certainly held my interest throughout and I always looked for time and space to pick it up again.
Set in Amsterdam, that’s a plus. A detective team, tick. Two strands = complexity, good. Emotional engagement, outrage at bad behaviour. Hewson is very good at what he does.
I do enjoy the way David Hewson writes and this series is no exception Set in Amsterdam yet another destination used by Hewson to introduce a new protagonist. Good plot with plenty of factions playing against each other so makes for interesting storyline. Goodies, baddies it’s hard to tell which is which at first so I kept an open mind. Will definitely be reading the next Pieter Voss instalment 👍🏻
Nearly gave up on this one as I struggle keeping track of characters at the best of times, and there were a lot of Dutch names. I put it down for a week, then had nothing to read to gave it another go, and didn't worry about names. So I probably missed a bit of the story, but nevertheless a good read. That little girl serious worries me though...
I'm enjoying these stories and how different stories set in Holland are than those set in the US or Scandinavia. There is something intriguing about how these stories come together and how the characters interact with each other. The plot was believable and interesting; I couldn't begin to guess how it was going to resolve. I'm pleased I have the next one in the series on my bedside table.
A taut, well-constructed thriller/procedural with some interesting twists and turns and a good writing style. Hewson negotiates his way skilfully through the potential minefields of Muslim fundamentalism and forced prostitution without ruffling any feathers, and the young kidnap victim, Natalya, is a heroine for the ages - smart, brave and loyal.
Having read Hewson’s books set in Italy, I knew he was an excellent writer. His series set in the Netherlands started off with a bang with The Doll House. This follow up continued the new series in perfect fashion. Well-written, great characters, a plot that turns and twists - this book has it all! Highly recommend as a series.
I struggled a bit with this book and and all the Dutch names, calling them by their surnames and then by their forenames in other places. I think I should have read the first in the series before this too. The story was ok though.
I like the Pieter Vos character. He doesn't take any BS from anyone and tells it just like it is. This story was OK but the last 50-100 pages just seems to go on and on. I think that it could have done with are less pages. but, all in all an interesting concept.
4 sterren, borduurt goed verder op de personages van het eerste boek (je hoeft het eerste boek per se te lezen). Ik vond het verhaal wat traag op gang komen, daarna pakte het me meer en meer.