Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories [Paperback]

Janwillem Van De Wetering (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

The beloved Amsterdam Cops-Henk Grijpstra and Rinus de Gier-have appeared in fourteen novels and thirteen stories. All of the stories are collected in this volume-now in paperback-including three never published in this country.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like a novel, a good mystery short story demands well-rounded characters, suspense and a satisfying plot; this collection of 13 tales by the usually outstanding van de Wetering falls short on all three counts. Perhaps it's because the author, a former Zen Buddhist monk, compresses his stories into koan-like vignettes in which, for the most part, the police solve crimes through intuition rather than by analyzing clues. Written during the past 16 years, the stories feature the Amsterdam Murder Brigade's cynical, jowly Detective-Adjutant Henk Grijpstra and his handsome assistant Detective-Sergeant Rinus de Gier. In several storiesA"Six This, Six That," "There Goes Ravelaar," "Heron Island," "The Sergeant's Cat" and "Houseful of Mussels"Athe police make arrests based on unexplained assumptions. Maybe satori, the sudden enlightenment of Zen philosophy, is at work, but the result will leave readers puzzled. In other casesA"The Deadly Egg," "Letter Present," "Hup Three" and "The Bongo Bungler"Athe police don't have enough evidence to arrest the suspects, but the bad guys still get their comeuppance, either through accident or suicide. A sense of loss pervades some stories, like "The Machine Gun and the Mannequin," while in others, only Grijpstra's and de Gier's silly banter relieves the banality of their work. Van de Wetering's novels (The Perfidious Parrot, etc.) are known for their witty plots and eccentric characters; his books on Zen are quirky and engaging. Unfortunately, not even one hand can clap for these disappointing tales. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Amsterdam cops Grijpstra and de Gier bridge the gap between the big-brained European sleuths of the old school, who restored order from chaos through the power of their logic, and the more beleaguered contemporary European crime fighters, who are often overwhelmed by the fundamental orderlessness of the world. Through 14 novels and these 13 stories, now collected for the first time, Grijpstra and de Gier have bantered their way to solving all variety of bizarre crimes, using a combination of human empathy and Poroitian gray matter. In the short form, with less time to develop individual idiosyncrasies, the emphasis falls on deduction, and the pair deliver the goods, as in "Six This, Six That," where Grijpstra makes sense of a Newtonian riddle to solve a cash-register scam turned lethal. Finally, though, it is quirkiness not mental gymnastics that draw us to these stories, with van de Wetering never failing to isolate those moments of sheer human oddity that unlock the emotional lives of his characters. Bill Ott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime; Reprint edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569472106
• ISBN-13: 978-1569472101
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this one last, September 13, 2003

By 

D. Bivins "ssm2044" (Brooklyn, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories (Paperback)

For those who love The Amsterdam Cops series, this is the icing on the cake--especially for those who feel that the series lost something when retirements came around.
Reading the other reviews, I can see that if you own the other books of short stories of Van de Wetering, you're not getting your money's worth, so to speak. I don't agree though that those stories previously unavailable or not translated are "one star." The entire book was enjoyable to me on many levels.
I was also pleased to see that another reader found this to be a compelling introduction to the series. But I do think that it's much more fun to start at the beginning, with Outsider in Amsterdam, as the short stories presented here span two decades and a great deal of changes in the lives of the main characters.
For those who wonder if Grijpstra and De Gier translate well to the short format, I believe the answer is yes. These are scenes that would be very much at home in the novels, but are still satisfying in the short format.
Now if only Van de Wetering would give us the pleasure of more Commissaris stories...

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not if you own "The Sergeant's Cat" & "Mangrove Mama"!, June 16, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Amsterdam Cops, Collected Stories (Hardcover)

The star rating is an anomaly; of course most of the stories are good. But they have, with only 3 exceptions, *already been published* in the books "The Sergeant's Cat" and "Mangrove Mama". If you already have these books, unless you're a truly rabid afficionado, don't bother with this one. Why? The remaining 3 are not very good stories, rating only 1 star.

If you're new to Van de Wetering, you shouldn't start here anyway. Buy "Outsider in Amsterdam" (5 stars) instead.

(Note: this review is "for the hardcover version only", because only hardcover buyers could have purchased Mangrove Mama, and only vdW. lovers would own The Sergeant's Cat (1987, out of print).)

5.0 out of 5 stars Short stories, February 13, 2007

By 

Mona C. Colgan "mona from arizona" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories (Paperback)

Have been a fan of van de Wetering for a long time now but not being a fan of short stories I've never tried his. But one day I was desperate for something new to read and I came across Amsterdam Cops. I'm so very glad I did. These stories are every bit as fun, intelligent and laugh out loud hilarious as his full length novels. I only wish there were more......