Customer Reviews

The Hollow-Eyed Angel

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Van de Wetering continues his search for the true meaning of being and nothingness. The commissaris and Sergeant de Gier travel to New York to investigate the death of an uncle of a member of the Amsterdam Police Reserve. Throughout the course of their investigation, the Dutch detectives continue their own personal search for enlightenment. Van de Wetering has a talent for giving his readers more than a casual glimpse of the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, yet he manages to do so without preaching about it. As always, he makes us laugh along the way. This book did not feature as much interaction between Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier as some of Van de Wetering's previous efforts, as Gripstra did not travel to Manhattan with his colleagues. The focus in this story was the commissaris, and his attempts to solve both the case, and the meaning of life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I am glad that the author has continued this unique mystery series after a long hiatus.

This 13th in van de Wetering's Amsterdam Police series continues the series' unique atmospheric mix of police procedure, quirky characters and Zen outlook.

The commissaris, whose health has been frail for some time, is on the verge of retirement when he is approached by Johan Termeer, a volunteer police constable, whose uncle has been found dead in Central Park in New York City.

The New York police are calling it a heart attack, but Termeer is sure he has been murdered and asks the commissaris to look into it. Since the commissaris is going to New York for a police convention he reluctantly agrees.

Feverish and haunted by a recurring dream of a leggy streetcar driver with hollow eye sockets, he turns up various oddities - the dead man, who was a prosperous, well-dressed bookseller, was seen cavorting in the park by Dutch tourists. They also witnessed him being kicked by a police horse. When found dead the next morning he was dressed in derelict rags and covered with a filthy blanket.

With drum-playing Inspector Grijpstra and Jazz-loving bachelor Sergeant DeGier exploring the commissaris' theories and questioning the tourists and other background witnesses back in Amsterdam, the story proceeds in layers and parallels. Each encounter supplies something unexpected - a tangential approach, a stereotype revised, a small fact with large implications.

De Wetering's blend of wry humor and Zen philosophy permeate the world inhabited by his tolerant, grumpy and engaging characters. His well-honed writing style transports the reader to that world.

Janwillem van de Wetering is best known for his low-key tales of a pair of good-natured Amsterdam detectives. Amsterdam is the liberal capital of the world and van de Wetering's police officers look for ways to help and protect their often crazy charges. The last thing they want to do is arrest them.

The Hollow-Eyed Angel is set partly in New York, but the New Yorkers in this story are as easy-going and philosophical as their Dutch visitors. In fact, it's the New Yorkers who are only too willing to assume that Uncle Bert, found partly eaten by racoons in the azalea bushes, died a natural death.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the works of P D James, Colin Dexter or Tony Hillerman.

It's difficult to review any book in this series without the same initial comments. I've read the majority of the Grijpstra & DeGier mysteries but had difficulty getting into each for a few pages. Then, I've been captured to differing degrees. While, I don't like slap-stick comedy, these books do have a large degree of quirkiness because of the character and relationships among them. They can "grow on you" once you adapt to the context. Those words make it sound like work. Not so. They are entertaining, contain some insightfulness and have various degrees of humor. Almost all of these books have two or three mysteries imbedded.

They should be read in order of earliest first to truly grasp the characters and relationships as time passes. This is one of the later books, enjoyable but not a top favorite. It contains a degree of zen-like philosophy which is a context I couldn't "get into" In that regard, the reader may want to know that van de Wetering lived in a monastery for a time and wrote some books about that as well. One element of these books that I find interesting is a sense of what the Dutch culture is like. This book has an added element per taking place largely in NYC and thereby giving glimpse into how some Europeans might view our culture. I'd recommend it and some of the others per differing degrees of light reading entertainment.