Dekok and the Dead Harlequin [Paperback]

A. C. Baantjer (Author), H. G. Smittenaar (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1993

Baantjers laconic, rapidfire storytelling has spun out a surprisingly complex web of mysteries. Kirkus Reviews Baantjer seduces mystery lovers. Inspector DeKok is part Columbo, part Clouseau, part genius, and part imp. West Coast Review of Books..... This latest pageturner in the bestselling Baantjer series delves into a grotesque double murder in a wellknown Amsterdam hotel. Faced with murder victims found looking like macabre wooden harlequins, Inspector DeKok must unravel clues from two unexpected characters: a sixyearold girl who has trouble sleeping and a respected accountant who seeks DeKoks advice on committing the perfect crime. In a surprising twist, DeKok meets with the murderer and tries everything possible to prevent the man from giving himself up to the police. With Dead Harlequin, Baantjer has crafted yet another intelligent, absorbing tale.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Baantjer's ( Murder in Amsterdam ) latest mystery finds his hero, Inspector DeKok, in fine form. His eyebrows continue to have "a life of their own," and they get plenty of exercise in this tale of murderous revenge, as Pierre Brassel, a respected Amsterdam accountant, brazenly asks DeKok for an appointment to discuss how he can commit the perfect murder. At the meeting, he announces that the corpse of Jan Brets, an underworld figure, can be found in a nearby hotel; the meeting is his alibi when Brets is discovered dead, exactly where Brassel said he would be. The victim's head is smashed in and his body shaped into a grotesque harlequin form. A series of red herrings and dead ends leads up to a second murder, in the same place as the first, with the victim's body twisted into the same harlequin form. Brassel again conveniently arranges for DeKok to be his alibi. As in Baantjer's earlier works, the issue of moral ambiguity once again plays heavily here, as DeKok ultimately solves the crimes, but only after threatening to perjure himself, and in the end he lets the double-murderer go free in the interest of a greater good than justice under the law.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A well told tale that any crime enthusiast will enjoy. The translator H. G. Smittenaar has done a fine job of matching the two languages so the reader will enjoy talented author A. C. Baantjer's tales of crime in the setting of Amsterdam. --Reader to Reader, February 2009

This one, in which a very precise and orderly man, ordinary in every possible way, informs DeKok that he's going to commit a murder, is a masterpiece of deduction. We follow along to unravel crime, motive, method and even victim in a plot that Arthur Conan Doyle would have adored. --Globe and Mail, February 2009

Baantjer was a police inspector of the Amsterdam police. This beloved Dutch author uses his expertise and skill to bring his Inspector DeKok to life. DeKok and the Dead Harlequin might serve to bring a "forgotten" author to American audiences. --Lesa's Book Critiques, March 2009

The bottom line is this: DeKok and the Dead Harlequin is one of the best mysteries you will have an opportunity to read this year (or any other). --BookLoons Review, March 2009

"Rarely does a mystery capture the attention of the reader as suddenly and as firmly as the first page of DeKok and the Dead Harlequin does." --Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, March 2009 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Intercontinental Pub Inc (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881164047
• ISBN-13: 978-1881164043
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,958,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Introducing a wonderful old character to an American audience, August 2, 2009

By 

Debra Hamel (North Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dekok and the Dead Harlequin (Inspector Dekok) (Inspector DeKok Investigates) (Paperback)

A.C. Baantjer has written some sixty novels featuring Amsterdam's Inspector DeKok. DeKok and the Dead Harlequin, my first foray into the series, was originally published in Dutch in 1967. The English edition was released by Speck Press earlier this year. The book starts with a most intriguing puzzle. DeKok receives a note from a man who asks for an appointment, saying that he has determined to commit a murder. The murder indeed takes place, but while the visitor is in DeKok's office, so it's solution is not as obvious as one would at first suspect. The crime remains a puzzlement to the end, when DeKok reveals all to his wife and his perplexed colleague Vledder. It's the sort of crime novel in which the reader is not given all the information that DeKok has at his disposal, so that while we may have ideas about who did it, we cannot solve the crime ourselves.

The elaborate precautions taken by DeKok's note writer are what makes the story immediately interesting, yet in the end--though I don't want to give anything away--I'm not convinced that that aspect of the story quite makes sense, as if it were introduced because it was sensational rather than necessary to the plot. But I quite enjoyed my introduction to the series nonetheless. DeKok is a wonderful character--shambling and humane and imperfect and quite realistic. I imagine this won't be my last dip into the world of Amsterdam's criminal element.

-- Debra Hamel

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Long-Running Series, April 20, 2009

By 

Ted Feit (Long Beach, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dekok and the Dead Harlequin (Inspector Dekok) (Inspector DeKok Investigates) (Paperback)

Inspector DeKok, with a kohk, apparently is one of the longer-running mystery series, with at least 60 novels so far. It is among the more popular crime novels in The Netherlands and is the basis for a long-standing TV series as well. Speck Press, an imprint of Fulcrum Publishing, has stated that it is committed to printing the entire series for United States readers.

In this novel, DeKok and his foil-sidekick, Vledder, encounter a most unusual situation. An accountant writes to ask for an appointment, and when he arrives he requests that DeKok help him plan the perfect murder, since he is planning on killing someone. .He, moreover, offers to admit to the murder after the fact.

Later, two murders take place in the same hotel room, but DeKok's visitor has an absolute alibi: he was in the Inspector's presence each time. Each victim was found lying on the floor, stretched out like a harlequin. From that point we are treated to a most unusual police procedure, following the somewhat incongruous lines of thought reflecting DeKok's mental processes.

The publisher is to be congratulated for bringing this gem of a series to the United States, and readers have much to look forward to in the future. Apparently, the next book will be in hardcover for a July publication date, entitled "DeKok and the Mask of Death."