MIND MURDERS [Hardcover]

Janwillem van de Wetering (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 1981

Suspecting a missing woman's husband of murder, two Amsterdam detectives try to locate the missing body of Mrs. Fortune, while at the same time trying to find the killer of an unidentified male stuffed in the trunk of a stolen Mercedes.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Janwillem van de Wetering (1931–2008) was born and raised in Rotterdam, but lived most recently in Surry, Maine. He served as a member of the Amsterdam Special Constabulary and was once a Zen Buddhist monk. He is renowned for his detective fiction, including Outsider in Amsterdam, The Corpse on the Dike, The Japanese Corpse, and eleven other books in the Grijpstra and de Gier series. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 186 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Edition edition (April 27, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395305446
• ISBN-13: 978-0395305447
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,976,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "The dog stood on the quayside and chewed on a cap.", May 31, 2009

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Mind-Murders (Grijpstra De Grier Series) (Paperback)

One of the most annoying things in the world is when you think that you've bought a nice mystery novel and it instead turns out that you've gotten short stories, or novellas. The publisher doesn't like it, so they package the whole thing so as not to make clear what you're actually getting. This is one of those books.

The Mind-Murders is actually two novellas, only very loosely linked. There's some kind of conceit here that the first features a murder without a corpse and the second involves a corpse with no apparent killer. Some of the minor characters wander back and forth between the two books, but they are generally completely separate narratives.

Grijpstra and de Gier are much as they always are as characters. I generally quite enjoy van de Wetering's Amsterdam mysteries. Somehow this installment brings out more about what annoys me in the series than what I really love.

If you're a fan of the series and want to be complete, it isn't awful if you know what to expect. If you haven't read any Grijpstra and de Gier before, I'd recommend that you start somewhere else. The Blond Baboon for instance.

8 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We live in patterns, June 22, 2004

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Mind-Murders (Grijpstra De Grier Series) (Paperback)

It was a Friday night in the summertime. Grijpstra and DeGier were faced with a stuck window. They had overstayed their shift and the weekend had really started.

Police constables may have thrown a handicapped man into a canal. The constables are called Ketchup and Karate. Grijpstra and DeGier take off in search of Rea Fortune since her belongings have vanished. They interview their suspect, Frits Fortune. His wife had wanted him to sell his business and he did not want to. It would vary his routine. A corpse is found on the roof of his house, that of his dog Babette.

The detectives run down Fortune's relatives, Aunt Coba and Uncle Henry. They are dressed in antique unisex. They say that as a child Fortune had beheaded his toy bear. Grijpstra believes that Rea Fortune is a woman of unfulfilled fantasy. Ketchup and Karate, the constables, contend that Fortune's relatives are mad.

One of the characters reports that everyone has gone to the beach to annoy the tourists. Amsterdam seems deserted. Rea Fortune appears. She is charged with attempted murder of her husband. Perhaps Mrs. Fortune was merely persuading her husband to sell his business. DeGier is giving up smoking and his suffering is detailed in the book. At one point he wants to snatch a nearly full pack of cigarettes from someone.

Two dead people have been found in trunks of cars in Amsterdam. The first was an accidental death, an overdose. The other death was from natural causes, an ulcer. Ulcers may be caused by a malfunctioning of the mind. It turns out that the police officers had seen the second person staggering on the previous day.

DeGier goes to see a female constable, Asta. Mr. Boronski, the ulcer case, was found dead in Karl Muller's car. Muller said the men did business together. DeGier and Asta interview Muller. Asta takes notes. The two interview the hotel manager. Asta points out that the hotel is hollow, not what it seems. DeGier plays flute and Grijpstra plays some drums he has gotten from the police lost and found department while they discuss the Boronski case with Asta. The two police officers, trailing Muller, catch some street muggers.

Asta arrests Muller. She goes into the canal to retrieve Muller's dropped case. The officers suspect cocaine. First they had a murder and no corpse and now they have a corpse and no crime except for drugs which is not their department. German police officers appeared to subject Muller to some rough interrogation. The Commissaris describes to DeGier and Asta how fear strengthened one man and destroyed another. The solution is that someone did a secret favor. This series is tops. The author is masterful.