Customer Reviews

The Devil's Playground

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Got this book in the UK. Don't know why it isn't HUGE here in the United States. Has all the makings of a gigantic blockbuster thriller; it is absolutely gripping, and the writing is outstanding. Do not miss this one!

The director Otto Preminger -a bullying tyrant by all accounts -once made a movie version of the Leon Uris bestseller Exodus .It is a very long movie and at its New York premiere a leading Jewish-American comedian ,stupified with boredom as the movie unravelled its torturous length on screen ,was moved to stand up and address the director across the theatre ,crowded with New York's A-list with the words "Otto ,Otto ,let my people go"

I know exactly how the guy felt -and was on the verge of shouting to the absent Mr Sherez "Just get on with it ,will ya".In short I am of the view that this debut novel is WAYYYYYYY too long and would have been twice as good at half the length .
Events are set in motion when the body of an elderly derelict ,"Jake" is found murdered in an Amsterdam park .It is believed to be the work of a serial killer at large in the city but to the maverick detective Van Hijn who is in charge of the case this view simply does not hold water .There is a clue in the form of on phone number found in the deceased's pocket .It is the number of Londoner "Jon Reed"who had taken Jake into his flat in London prior to Jake simply walking out .The two men share a Jewish ancestry
Jon travels to Amsterdam and resolves to dig into the case despite advice from Van Hijn not to do so .He strikes up a relationship with "Suze " an American post graduate student with an interest in a female artist and holocaust victim and the case turns on the thirst for Holocaust memorabilia and in particular film of atrocities in the camps
My problem with the book as indicated earlier is its length - at least 150 pages too long in my view .the extra time being largely taken up woith windy philosophising and sententious moralising .We are given -to no great purpose I am able to work out -pages of a diary purportedly written by the artist on whose work Suze is writing -and at times the author seems more intent on showing off his research and taste in music than in advancing the plot

There is a talent here and he would make a fine travel writer as the descriptions of Amsterdam are exact and insightful but if he is to engage my further notice as a novelist he needs to tighten up his plotting and create more sympathetic figures than he creates here -only Van Hijn was a creation I actually liked .Jon in particular is a dilettante with too much time and money while Suze and her coterie plub new depths of pontificating windbaggery.

An important theme lies buried here amongst a pile of persiflage and bombast