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De Cock #33
De Cock en moord à la carte
De bekentenis op een menukaart brengt inspecteur De Cock en zijn assistent Vledder dichter bij de oplossing van een moord die een jaar eerder gepleegd werd.
139 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1990
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
A.C. Baantjer
163 books68 followersAKA: 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 10, 2020
Het verhaal begint als De Cock een jongen op het bureau krijgt die graag het vak wil leren. De jongeman werkt in de boekwinkel van zijn vader waar ze net de boeken van Hendrik Donkersloot hebben overgenomen. De boeken zelf zijn niet zo waardevol, maar de jongen heeft iets bijzonders gevonden in een oud geschiedenisboek. Het is een oud menu van Hotel-restaurant De Poort van Eden in Amsterdam en op de achterkant staat de bekentenis van een moord. Het begin van een gedegen onderzoek van De Cock en Vledder.
De Cock en dans macabre is het drieëndertigste deel van de De Cock-serie, de detectivereeks van schrijver Appie Baantjer. Weer een spannende politieroman van de bekende Amsterdamse speurder De Cock en zijn collega Vledder. Met alle terugkomende bekenden zaken als : de confrontatie met commissaris Buitendam en een bezoek aan het etablissement van Smalle Lowietje, met wie De Cock en Vledder steevast een glas cognac Napoleon drinken. Ondanks deze bekende terugkerende gewoontes verveelt ook De Cock en moord a la carte niet.
Standaard in de boeken van baantjer lijken ook telkens drie moorden die plaats vinden. Ondanks dat heeft het weer de juiste dosis spanning. Het blijven leuke boeken voor tussendoor.
De Cock en dans macabre is het drieëndertigste deel van de De Cock-serie, de detectivereeks van schrijver Appie Baantjer. Weer een spannende politieroman van de bekende Amsterdamse speurder De Cock en zijn collega Vledder. Met alle terugkomende bekenden zaken als : de confrontatie met commissaris Buitendam en een bezoek aan het etablissement van Smalle Lowietje, met wie De Cock en Vledder steevast een glas cognac Napoleon drinken. Ondanks deze bekende terugkerende gewoontes verveelt ook De Cock en moord a la carte niet.
Standaard in de boeken van baantjer lijken ook telkens drie moorden die plaats vinden. Ondanks dat heeft het weer de juiste dosis spanning. Het blijven leuke boeken voor tussendoor.
November 11, 2023
Na Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None had ik zin in nog een moordmysterie, dus ik besloot aan mijn eerste Baantjer te beginnen. In 2020 kwam mijn moeder op het idee dit boek aan mijn opa cadeau te doen, waarbij zijn naam erin gedrukt werd als de trouwe assistent van De Cock. Het is moeilijk mijn opa voor te stellen als enthousiaste, jonge rechercheur, maar desalniettemin heerlijk om te lezen. Baantjers schrijfstijl verbleekt bij die van Christie, maar toch is dit een moordmysterie om lekker een paar dagen in te vertoeven.
August 29, 2022
3,5 sterren- Nederlandse hardcover
Bibliotheek boek. Geen boekverslag, alleen sterren aantekening in agenda.
Bibliotheek boek. Geen boekverslag, alleen sterren aantekening in agenda.
July 18, 2019
Wederom een leuk boek van Baantjer, over De Cock. Een goed doordacht verhaal, met veel details. Alleen jammer dat ik al vrij vroeg had uitgevogeld wie de daadwerkelijke dader zou zijn. Ik vind het leuker en spannender als ook ik tot het eind mag gissen.
April 8, 2020
Via een menukaart verneemt de Cock wie de dader is van een moord die gepleegd is een jaar geleden. Toen hij heeft deze zaak moeten afgeven aan de afdeling narcotica. De Cock wil weten hoe ver de zaak staat en gaat terug op onderzoek tot hij de dader heeft gevonden.
August 1, 2022
Wat minder, ook relatief weinig blz.
December 31, 2023
Een bizar slecht boek. Ik wilde toch eens weten wat voor boeken dit zijn, vooral omdat ik de tv-serie best goed vond. Maar dit is erger dan pulp.
April 8, 2024
Zonder twijfel een van de beste! Speuren tot het einde.
February 24, 2025
Jammer maar ik vond deze echt tegenvallen. Kon er niet echt inkomen. Het enige wat ik wel echt leuk vond is de lijntjes naar andere verhalen!
July 13, 2012
According to Goodreads, DeKok & Murder on the Menu is the 33rd installment in the series by Dutch author A. C. Baantjer. By my count, it's number 31--but no matter. At 30-something, DeKok is a well-established character and it is obvious that Baantjer is quite comfortable with his inspector. He has given us an older detective (older by the 1990s when this was published)--who is bemused by modern technology and a little put off by the fast-pace of modern life. He is a slow-moving, slow-talking man who may also seem to be slow in his thinking...and yet he always gets to the correct solution in the end.
This outing begins with DeKok in his office questioning a young man who will set an intricate investigation in motion. The young man works in his father's book shop where they have just taken on the library of Hendrik Donkersloot. The books themselves aren't extraordinarily valuable, but the boy has found something extraordinary tucked in the pages of an old history book. It is an old menu from Hotel-Restaurant De Poort van Eden in Amsterdam and written on the back is Donkersloot's confession to murder. The confession is a highly detailed account of a murder that has remained unsolved for over a year--and which has been written off as drug- or gang-related. Donkersloot has since died of a heart attack and is unavailable for questioning.
DeKok and his asssistant Vledder follow a trail of clues that lead them from Amsterdam to Rotterdam to Maastricht and from the hotel to the deserted docks along the western harbor. There are drugs and blackmail and beautiful women mixed up in the case and it's hard for DeKok to reconcile those items with the older Donkersloot and his seemingly innocent widow. Soon more victims are killed in a similar manner and another confession is discovered. But how could Donksloot confess to a murder that hadn't yet been committed?
I mentioned the interview with the young man at the beginning of this novel. I absolutely love it and must give you the very first bit in its full glory:
Inspector DeKok, assigned to the ancient police station in the Warmoesstraat, Amersterdam, leaned comfortably back in his chair and look, with a genial smile on his lips, at the young man who had placed himself in the chair next to his desk. Briefly, he scratched his nose and then stretched an index finger towards his visitor.
"What's your name?" he asked pleasantly.
"Jan...Jan Schouten."
DeKok moved his lower lip forward: "A nice name...Jan Schouten. Historical name. There was a famous admiral by that name. And how old are you?"
"Seventeen. I am from Rotterdam. My father owns a large book store there."
"And you want to become a police detective?"
The young man nodded emphatically. "I always read the books Baantjer writes about you. I think they are great. Real thrillers. I would love to get involved in a murder with you and Vledder...totally...from beginning to end. I think that would be awesome.
DeKok grinned. "I am sorry but that's impossible. Anyway...if I were you I wouldn't be so quick to believe everything that Baantjer writes about me. I know him, you know. I like him. We visit from time to time and I tell him about the sort of things that happen to a police-detective in Amsterdam. Baantjer, however, has the tendency to present the facts in a much more complicated and romantic way than they really are. He embellishes a lot. Writers call that poetic license, but in my opinion it is just cheating."
Very nice tongue-in-cheek, self-reference there, Baantjer. And reminiscent of Holmes' complaints about Watson's publication of the great detective's exploits.
Baantjer does a nice job of twisting the plot several times in the final chapters and kept me guessing all the way through. I enjoyed my visit with DeKok and am getting fond of the "grey detective"--but I have to say that Baantjer lost a bit of his style in this one. I read DeKok and Murder on Blood Mountain last year and mentioned in my review how much I liked his descriptive powers. Perhaps it was the difference in subject matter and less countryside visits to describe--but I was a bit disappointed.
Overall, a good police procedural--well-plotted and interesting. Good characterization. All for three and a half stars on the rating scale.
This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
This outing begins with DeKok in his office questioning a young man who will set an intricate investigation in motion. The young man works in his father's book shop where they have just taken on the library of Hendrik Donkersloot. The books themselves aren't extraordinarily valuable, but the boy has found something extraordinary tucked in the pages of an old history book. It is an old menu from Hotel-Restaurant De Poort van Eden in Amsterdam and written on the back is Donkersloot's confession to murder. The confession is a highly detailed account of a murder that has remained unsolved for over a year--and which has been written off as drug- or gang-related. Donkersloot has since died of a heart attack and is unavailable for questioning.
DeKok and his asssistant Vledder follow a trail of clues that lead them from Amsterdam to Rotterdam to Maastricht and from the hotel to the deserted docks along the western harbor. There are drugs and blackmail and beautiful women mixed up in the case and it's hard for DeKok to reconcile those items with the older Donkersloot and his seemingly innocent widow. Soon more victims are killed in a similar manner and another confession is discovered. But how could Donksloot confess to a murder that hadn't yet been committed?
I mentioned the interview with the young man at the beginning of this novel. I absolutely love it and must give you the very first bit in its full glory:
Inspector DeKok, assigned to the ancient police station in the Warmoesstraat, Amersterdam, leaned comfortably back in his chair and look, with a genial smile on his lips, at the young man who had placed himself in the chair next to his desk. Briefly, he scratched his nose and then stretched an index finger towards his visitor.
"What's your name?" he asked pleasantly.
"Jan...Jan Schouten."
DeKok moved his lower lip forward: "A nice name...Jan Schouten. Historical name. There was a famous admiral by that name. And how old are you?"
"Seventeen. I am from Rotterdam. My father owns a large book store there."
"And you want to become a police detective?"
The young man nodded emphatically. "I always read the books Baantjer writes about you. I think they are great. Real thrillers. I would love to get involved in a murder with you and Vledder...totally...from beginning to end. I think that would be awesome.
DeKok grinned. "I am sorry but that's impossible. Anyway...if I were you I wouldn't be so quick to believe everything that Baantjer writes about me. I know him, you know. I like him. We visit from time to time and I tell him about the sort of things that happen to a police-detective in Amsterdam. Baantjer, however, has the tendency to present the facts in a much more complicated and romantic way than they really are. He embellishes a lot. Writers call that poetic license, but in my opinion it is just cheating."
Very nice tongue-in-cheek, self-reference there, Baantjer. And reminiscent of Holmes' complaints about Watson's publication of the great detective's exploits.
Baantjer does a nice job of twisting the plot several times in the final chapters and kept me guessing all the way through. I enjoyed my visit with DeKok and am getting fond of the "grey detective"--but I have to say that Baantjer lost a bit of his style in this one. I read DeKok and Murder on Blood Mountain last year and mentioned in my review how much I liked his descriptive powers. Perhaps it was the difference in subject matter and less countryside visits to describe--but I was a bit disappointed.
Overall, a good police procedural--well-plotted and interesting. Good characterization. All for three and a half stars on the rating scale.
This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
April 14, 2014
Whether through an inaccurate list or just brainfart, I accidentally read this one out (way out) of sequence. Skipping ahead a dozen-ish installments, I was pleased to find that constant repetition of DeKok's quirks has tapered off considerably, though am left wondering about other changes from when I left off. This one began endearingly, and the case intrigued - the original must certainly have been a puzzler - but those turn out to have been the high points, as the play-through of the case simply doesn't hold interest.
December 17, 2017
A re-read. I love re-reading these stories, because they are so predictable, but always different.
This episod starts with a menu. On its backside is a written confession of a murder. The victim mentioned has indeed been murdered. De Cock and his assistant Vledder awaits a new and very curious case with a vanished collection of books and a disappearing widow.
This episod starts with a menu. On its backside is a written confession of a murder. The victim mentioned has indeed been murdered. De Cock and his assistant Vledder awaits a new and very curious case with a vanished collection of books and a disappearing widow.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews