Murder in Amsterdam: DeKok and the Sunday Strangler / DeKok and the Corpse on Christmas Eve

De Cock #2-3

by A.C. Baantjer

One of the most widely read authors in the Netherlands, A.C. Baantjer continues to captivate a growing audience of American readers. This volume contains two of his favorite stories.

"DeKok and the Sunday Strangler" opens with the strangling death of Fat Sonja, an Amsterdam prostitute of whom Inspector DeKok was fond. Soon a second prostitute is killed, and along with his assistant, Viedder, DeKok begins down a trail of twisted motives and hidden agendas.

"DeKok and the Corpse on Christmas Eve" proves that DeKok himself is not above breaking the law to serve the interest of justice, as he engages a burglar to commit a break-in and then tampers with evidence to entrap the murderer of a young woman.

Genres: Mystery, Christmas

263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

AKA: Baantjer, Albert Cornelis Baantjer

ALBERT CORNELIS BAANTJER is the most widely read author in the Netherlands and has written more than fifty "De Kok" titles. He has also written other fiction and nonfiction and wrote a daily column in a Dutch newspaper. He was an inspector with the Amsterdam Police for thirty-eight years. Baantjer lived in Medemblik, Netherlands.

Reviews

[Jason Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time reading this author. It was delightful. A good author to add to my Nordic noir reading.

[Janet Beday · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is fascinating to see how different cultures approach crime fiction. The Dutch tend to have a very pragmatic, gritty interpretation but oddly tend to be more English than German in the way they develop characters and twisted plots. This book includes two stories featuring Inspector DeKok. The Sunday Stranger is quite typical, dealing with the murder of prostitutes. Whilst the stories are well developed, it is the characters that make these stories stand out. You can almost see the canals and street cafes through their eyes.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dutch author, Baantjer describes the people, places and crimes of the red light district of Amsterdam through the eyes of police detective, Detok and his police station associates. Never having explored the downtown, canals or buildings of old Amsterdam, I enjoyed the imaginary tour. Solving the mystery was easier than expected, the pieces of the mystery puzzle fit nicely.

[Greg Brock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent police procedurals set in Amsterdam. The main character, DeKok, is a world-weary senior homicide investigator whose primary skill in solving crimes derives from his penetrating insights into human nature. His portrayal of life in Amsterdam is vivid with local color. DeKok is the Dutch Maigret.

[Agnes DiPietrantonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. Certainly not an intense thriller but police work is mostly dull. Likeable characters. A glimpse into the culture. A reminder that people are the same no matter where you go. This book contains the first two of many deKok mysteries.

[Sharron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Straight forward traditional police detective series set in Amsterdam.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

You see, the actual fact, the crime, is now more than the act. There's always a chain of events that lead up to the crime. That chain is started somewhere, a seed is planted. And when you start looking for that beginning, you'll find, sooner or later, a point at which somebody, either because of love, or the lack of it, out of hate, or an excess of it, for profit, or whatever, somebody, somewhere, at some time, shirked his responsibility toward his fellow man. Either consciously or subconsciously, it doesn't matter. But there you'll find the originator of the crime, the person morally responsible. (DeKok to Vledder; DeKok & the Sunday Strangler; p. 28)

Murder in Amsterdam (1981) is the book that started A. J. Baantjer's popular Inspector DeKok series. It brings together two novellas, DeKok & the Sunday Strangler (1965) and DeKok & the Corpse on Christmas Eve (1975). DeKok is an older detective, almost a relic of the past in contrast to the new breed of younger detectives, but he knows Amsterdam well and has a keen knowledge of its inhabitants. The younger men don't understand him, but are in awe of his formidable reputation for solving crimes. Each of these stories force DeKok back to work during a holiday. In Sunday Strangler, DeKok has been enjoying a vacation in the provinces with his wife and his old dog, Flip. He receives a telegram calling him away from the sunny skies and peaceful beaches to return to the cloud-covered, rainy city. Someone has strangled Fat Sonja, an Amsterdam prostitute who Dekok knew well. The killer has left behind no clues and the few leads that the police could find have led to dead ends.

DeKok is surprised to find that Vedder, one of the young detectives, specifically requested that he be called in to take over the investigation.

"Yes," he answered, "it was my idea. We weren't getting anywhere fast. We'd reached a dead end. In short, we're stuck. Then I phoned the Commissaris to get you involved. You have a lot of experience in this sort of cases."

DeKok isn't pleased, he just wants to be left alone to finish out his career. But when he realizes that Vedder is sincere in his admiration, he relents and becomes interested in the case. Then a second prostitute, Pale Goldie, is killed and DeKok begins to see a pattern. After questioning several people who knew the women--from a barman to other working girls to a pastor who was known to help prostitutes looking to leave the game, he thinks he knows who the killer is and lays a trap. But a miscalculation nearly costs the life of a third prostitute he knows well before the killer is caught.

The Corpse on Christmas Eve find Vedder on case, again--initially--without DeKok. This time a young woman is fished out of the Canal and Vedder thinks she's just another holiday suicide until the doctor on duty unwraps the scarf around her neck to reveal that she was strangled before going into the water. Vedder feels that he is out of his depth and summons DeKok for help--taking the older detective away from his Christmas holidays. It is soon revealed that the young woman recently broke off her engagement to a soldier, was pregnant at the time of her death, and may have been seeing another man while her (then) fiance was on active duty for a month. Her purse is also missing, so--was she killed for her money? Did her boyfriend resent the break-up and resort to violence? Or did Mr. X tire of her and end the relationship in the most final of ways. The emotional and hot-headed Vedder is all set to arrest the soldier, but DeKok insists that they are missing a vital clue--and he is willing to use the most unorthodox methods to find it.

This introductory book gives us a DeKok who seems far more disgruntled with his lot as detective and, yet, at the same time, far more philosophical about the job. He often gives "lectures" much like the opening quote above--musings on the way of things in the detecting business. Baantjer provides plenty of insight into what makes his lead detective tick as well as providing good descriptions of Amsterdam in the mid-60s and mid-70s. The stories are quick reads and enjoyable, entertaining stories with fairly straight-forward mystery plots. Baantjer could possibly have done a bit better in playing fair with the reader (DeKok makes a couple of leaps that I don't think are properly clued), but overall, good solid mysteries. ★★★ and a half. (rounded to four here)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Both stories are very easy to take," proclaims the Kirkus Review quote on the front of my copy. High praise indeed. But really, I very much enjoyed the two novellas included in Murder in Amsterdam. Baantjer, I discovered, is one of the most-read authors in The Netherlands, and that's certainly understandable. Both stories deal with the deaths of young women (one a prostitute, one a working girl who 'gets around,' to be euphemistic) which on the face, seem completely random. De Kok (the spelling of whose name--originally 'Cock,' which means cook in Dutch--had to be changed for adolescent American audiences) and his young sidekick employ unconventional methods in solving their cases--some of which are not entirely on the up and up. But as we well know, the best detectives always truck in at least a little moral ambiguity and What's Legal, well, isn't always What's Right.

De Kok is a satisfying character. We're told he's a veteran policeman with many little eccentricities and peccadillos (his eyebrows are often said to move independently of the rest of his face, he wears a decrepit little hat all the time), that he is tired of having to prove himself on the force and is more interested in letting the younger generation live up to all of his tales of past glory. He's friendly with prostitutes and well-known pick pockets, and keeps a bottle of his favorite liquor under the bar in a Red Light District Tavern. He has a tendency to withhold the mechanisms of his thought process, allowing his hot-headed partner stumble around in the dark for awhile before explaining his logic--much like Poirot, in that respect. He's quiet and can ignore things that he chooses to take no notice of, but has a violent temper when prodded. All in all, someone who I would certainly enjoy reading more about in future stories.

(For the record, Baantjer also has some of the best pulpy titles I've read in a long time. Some of my favorites are De Kok and the...

Somber Nude
Geese of Death
Sorrowing Tomcat
Disillusioned Corpse
Dying Stroller

Pretty awesome, right?

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A serial killer is killing prostitutes in the Red Light District. A dead body is found in one of Amsterdam's canals. These are the premises behind DeKok and the Sunday Strangler and DeKok and the Corpse on Christmas Eve, the two novels in A. C. Baantjer's Murder in Amsterdam and the beginning of the author's DeKok series. Think of DeKok as the Dutch counterpart of Agatha Christie's famous detective, Belgian Hercule Poirot. DeKok has his own idiosyncratic quirks (i.e. his eyebrows have a life of their own) and has his own way of doing things to get the job done (e.g., he solicits the help of a burglar friend). Unlike the list of suspects that is a hallmark of Agatha Christie's detective mysteries, Baantjer's style is more easy reading/pure entertainment. I look forward to reading the rest of his books in the DeKok series.

[Edward]

A serial killer is killing prostitutes in the Red Light District. A dead body is found in one of Amsterdam's canals. These are the premises behind DeKok and the Sunday Strangler and DeKok and the Corpse on Christmas Eve, the two novels in A. C. Baantjer's Murder in Amsterdam and the beginning of the author's DeKok series. Think of DeKok as the Dutch counterpart of Agatha Christie's famous detective, Belgian Hercule Poirot. DeKok has his own idiosyncratic quirks (i.e. his eyebrows have a life of their own) and has his own way of doing things to get the job done (e.g., he solicits the help of a burglar friend). Unlike the list of suspects that is a hallmark of Agatha Christie's detective mysteries, Baantjer's style is more easy reading/pure entertainment. I look forward to reading the rest of his books in the DeKok series.

[Martin Mulcahey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two novella size works in this compendium, with both stories giving insight on dynamic of an older detective handing off duties to a newer generation whose new tools may be inferior to human intuition? Inspector Dekok is an unexciting but complex character whose steady mind makes correct connections, and unlike many police figures has a loving home-life and is not ground under by his job hiding inside a bottle. Stories and plot are solid with a good sense of place as Amsterdam life is described but is not as distinctive a character as I would like. Stories are more about people then how city environment they live in shape them as say a Hening Mankel novel. Good read, will buy more of Banntjer series.

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward police procedural. Easy to read, sure, a minor but pleasant mystery with a cool character, all the more interesting because the author was himself a detective in Amsterdam.

I will definitely check out more of "the Cock" in future and maybe even swing by the museum next time I go to Amsterdam. I find "the Cock" very intriguing.

I think I'll next read De Cock en een strop voor Bobby, just on the English translation of the title alone, The Cock and a Sling for Bobby.

[Tich Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this on the Rotterdam cruise (Holland & America) as their Cruise Book Club Read. Short stories and we had a couple of meetings on the cruise about a couple of them. Very Maigret but set in Amsterdam...

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing and sad.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

wanted Amsterdam culture. didn't really want the red light district tho :) but like the main character...who has character.

[María-Columna]

Interesting