Inspector De Klerck and Tears for Valentine (2026) by P. Dieudonné

Recently, E-Pulp published the 14th title in P. Dieudonné's Rotterdam Police series, Rechercheur De Klerck en tranen om Valentijn (Inspector De Klerck and Tears for Valentine, 2026), which has a different tread on its plot than previous entries – centering on a series of disappearances instead of murder. This series oscillates between the modern police procedural/crime fiction and the more traditionally-styled detective stories. Inspector De Klerck and Tears for Valentine squarely falls into the modern category, but the story is a bit of roller coaster with an unexpected, satisfying conclusion. I'm getting ahead of the story.

Inspector De Klerck and Tears for Valentine begins with a panicky phone call to the police. Dorette Vroom is frightened and scared that something has happened to her boyfriend, Bart Biervliet, who went out to confront the man who has been bothering his seven-year-old daughter. The last drop was a Valentine card send to the girl. Bart Biervliet "was determined to teach that pervert a lesson," taking along a hockey stick, but never returned and doesn't answer his call. Inspectors Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver answer the call, only to find out the case is not as straightforward as it first appeared.

First of all, the man suspected of trying to contact Biervliet's daughter, Nico Pelsmaeker, appears to have nothing to do with what he has been accused of. So De Klerck wonders if the Valentine card was bait to lure Biervliet to a secluded place, but who and why? And what happened to the body? A possibility that begins to gain traction as Biervliet's complicated private and professional life begin to stir their investigation by throwing up complications, one after another, as the people involved either go on the run or disappear themselves – always under somewhat similar circumstances ("...lured away to a lonely place..."). What really adds interest to the story, considering how it started, is Biervliet's background as editor-in-chief of an opinion magazine, Vrij Onverveerd Vaderland (Free Undaunted Fatherland). More importantly, his past work and association with De Spanningsgids (Suspense Guide).

Dieudonné opened Inspector De Klerck and Tears for Valentine with a short preface thanking "the friendly people at the publisher who recounted their experiences with the darker sides of the book trade" and "allowed to make full use of their recorded experiences" for the book. If you have read my previous reviews of Dutch detective novels, classics and modern, you probably picked up on the fact that the Netherlands is a hostile place for not only traditionally-inclined detective fiction ("those sourpusses thought that detective novels should actually be thrillers"), but independent publisher and basically everything that's not proper crime fiction. For example, Dieudonné notes in the preface that you can't find his novels in the majority of bookstores in the country, "there are even provinces where practically no bookstore participates in the sale," wanted to explain why that is through this story. Oh, boy, did he ever!

When they start digging into the shenanigans of De Spanningsgids, De Klerck and Klaver uncover everything ranging from bullying and gatekeeping to biased or malicious reviews. M.P.O. Books, better known to some of you as "Anne van Doorn," can tell you what a malicious review can do when you're an author with a small publisher. So that put a very different spin and tone on the story from where it started, but then everything began to dovetail in its final stretch and ending. Now, like I said, Inspector De Klerck and Tears for Valentine is very much from in the modern, not classical, tradition and most of you would probably sneer at the murderer's identity – which can be taken as a cheat. However, there was a hint, or two, for the observant reader to spot. Yes, I spotted it and figured out the identity of the extremely well-hidden culprit, but that's not what made the ending so satisfying. That goes to the solution revealing what ultimately happened to the men who went missing without a trace. De Klerck rightfully called it "a unique case."

My personal taste and bias, of course, favors more detective story-like titles such as Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020), Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021) and Rechercheur De Klerck en de dode weldoener (Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist, 2025), but wouldn't want to have missed that ending for the world! Never knowing, exactly, what type of crime/detective next novel will turn out to be is part of the fun. It can be a straightforward politieroman like Rechercheur De Klerck en het duistere web (Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web, 2022) or something much weirder like Rechercheur De Klerck en een dodelijk pact (Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact, 2022). Whatever the next novel turns out to be, I'm looking forward to it.

Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist (2025) by P. Dieudonné

Earlier this month, E-Pulp released P. Dieudonné's thirteenth novel in the Rotterdam police series, Rechercheur De Klerck en de dode weldoener (Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist, 2025), set during those cold, dark days between Sinterklaas and Christmas – when the strangest cases happen in the Netherlands. At least, that's what A.C. Baantjer tried to make happen in De Cock en een dodelijke dreiging (DeKok and the Deadly Threat, 1988), but it never got anywhere. So good to see Dieudonné giving it another try with Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist.

This curious case begins innocently enough with an elderly, obviously lonely woman, Neeltje van Kwawegen, calling the police to report that her beloved Tom has gone missing. She can't bear the thought of spending Christmas without him and even accuses her neighbor of murder. Albert Cornelis de Waal, a young cop, takes pity and answers the call. When he arrives at her apartment, De Waal indeed finds a lonely, elderly woman living a dozen, or so, cats. Neeltje's beloved Tom is indeed a tomcat who has gone missing. I was only half joking when ending the review of the previous De Klerck novel hoping the thirteenth would be titled Rechercheur De Klerck en de dertien katten (Inspector De Klerck and the Thirteen Cats), because it would be too tempting not to do for a Baantjer fan. Dieudonné is the Baantjer fan. Not that I expected this book to actually feature a dozen, plus one, cats. Let's return to the story.

Neeltje is a deeply superstitious woman, referring to the number thirteen as "a dozen plus one," who believes Tom's disappearance is a bad omen as the tomcat was her fourteenth feline and she's now left with a dozen, plus one – bound to bring misfortune ("...expect death and destruction"). What else can the kindly De Waal do, except to promise to look around for Tom? Next day, Inspectors Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver are called to the same apartment complex where a prominent, dying citizen of Rotterdam is found brutally murdered in his own home.

Waldemar van Henegouwen was a well-known, beloved city philanthropist whose charity, Weldaad aan de Maas, dedicated to help the poorer people of the city and terminally ill children. It earned him a knighthood and numerous other prestigious awards. Van Henegouwen was dying himself with only a month, or two, left to live, but why kill a terminal ill, dying man? Why use a harpoon to run him through to leave him pinned to the chair? Someone is laboring very hard this December on their ponderous chain! And the strangeness doesn't end there. When reviewing the security footage, De Klerck and Klaver not only spot their colleague De Waal, but someone dressed up as the Grinch in Santa Claus custom. Klaver is shocked by the costumed figure, because only the night before he had attended a benefit show organized by Van Henegouwen's charity. A comedy-magic act by Felix Froentjes and his sons, Floris en Frans-Jan, who performed a magic portal-trick with them dresses as the Grinch's Santa Claus. Felix Frientjes was Van Henegouwen's best friend and Frans-Jan was a former tenant who got kicked out for being a nuisance, but is there connection with the murder? There's also two handymen with a criminal records, Neeltje's cat hating neighbor, the missing cat and a Commissioner De Froideville who's being more difficult than usual.

Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist is as packed as a Christmas stocking filled with more than one surprise and definitely marks a return to form after the uncharacteristic messily plotted Rechercheur De Klerck en de stille hoop (Inspector De Klerck and the Silent Hope, 2025). Dieudonné is definitely back to his old tricks here with the exterior of the story belying the intricate scheme and plot cleverly hidden underneath. When it comes to the conclusion, the temptation is there to draw comparison to some of the Golden Age names, but here it would constitute a spoiler. That solution can be worked out, roughly speaking, by the time De Klerck pieces the whole thing together. And it turns out the missing cat had a not unimportant role to play in this Christmas drama. So perhaps the book really should have been titled Rechercheur De Klerck and de dertiende kat (Inspector De Klerck and the Thirteenth Cat), but in every other way it can stand with the best in the series like Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) and Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021). You can definitely expect Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist to get a spot on a future followup to "The Naughty List: Top 12 Favorite Christmas Mystery Novels & Short Stories."

Inspector De Klerck and the Silent Hope (2025) by P. Dieudonné

Recently, the small independent Dutch publisher E-Pulp released the twelfth novel in P. Dieudonné's Rotterdam police series, Rechercheur De Klerck en de stille hoop (Inspector De Klerck and the Silent Hope, 2025), which begins with introducing a kaleidoscopic jumble of plot-threads – apparently unconnected. The opening chapter finds De Klerck arguing with Commissioner De Froideville over a two-year old, still unsolved and open missing persons case.

Frits Kieviet, "a habitual burglar," disappeared two years ago following the unsuccessful burglary of the home of an imminent university lecturer, Professor Rudolphi. The professor reported to the police nothing had been stolen, but rumors reached De Klerck claiming a valuable collection of antique coins was stolen from Professor Rudolphi's house in Ridderkerk. According to the rumors, two more people were involved in the burglary: a now dead call-girl named "NightQueenie" and her then boyfriend, Jules Olijhoek, who supposedly framed Kieviet. And not without consequences. Several dubious looking tough guys came looking for him at his regular bar, after which he disappeared without a trace. Worryingly, it suggests the respectable Professor Rudolphi is "a formidable criminal who wants to prevent his mask from falling at all costs." However, the case is in the hands of another district and De Klerck is not permitted to reopen the case or bother the influential Rudolphi ("...a friend of a friend").

The rumors regarding the burglary and collection of coins emanated from Kieviet's regular pub, 't Zotte Zwaantje, whose owner, Lowie, asks De Klerck's assistance when one of his regulars, Kjell van Boekel, dropped out of sight without a word – even turning his phone off. Inspectors De Klerck and Klaver don't have very long to give this problem their full attention, because next they're confronted with the central puzzle of the story.

A patrolling policeman found a young, soaking wet and dying man with pieces of duct tape still stuck to his face and clothes. The victim turns out to be a student, Casper Stokkentreeff, who recently got in trouble with the police for stalking his ex-girlfriend following a sudden breakup. Why was he held captive and tortured for days? Why didn't the doorbell cameras show him trying to get help? Why did he use his last breath to mumble something about building a bridge or bridge builders? A colleague of De Klerck's remarks that the murders he gets to investigate rarely resemble a simple crossword picture, but tend to be complicated cryptograms. Inspector De Klerck and the Silent Hope certainly is no exception.

I mentioned in previous reviews how this series built on the formula of the Dutch politieroman as imagined by A.C. Baantjer rather than being another imitation. Such as loosening up the formula to allow more freedom to play around with the plots, which received some much needed plot complexity. So the series not only featured the customary bizarre, multiple murders, but also sported locked room mysteries, dying messages and unbreakable alibis. But also what can be called what-happened mysteries like Rechercheur De Klerck en het duistere web (Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web, 2022) and Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongewenste dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death, 2023). A non-traditional puzzle in which a jumble of confusing crimes, incidents and people need to be put in the correct order or sequence to create a complete and coherent picture of the truth. Not always easy to do, but Dieudonné pulled it off before (see Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death). Regrettably, I can't say the same for the latest entry in the series.

I know Inspector De Klerck and the Silent Hope isn't intended as a traditional, fair play whodunit presented as a politieroman, but, even as a what-happened, it would have been nice to have had a shot at it – prevented by some information being dropped relatively late into the story. Important enough information to reduce every attempt preceding it to blindly groping around the dark. Same goes for, what turned out to be, the undecipherable dying message. I gave away my best impression of an armchair oracle trying to come up with a logical interpretation for those last, cryptic gurgled words. Maybe the policeman misheard him, but what sounds like "brug bouwen" (building a bridge)? Je moeder verbouwen (renovating your mom)? Surely, he couldn't have used his last breath to ask the policeman to tell his killer he was going to renovate his mom. So, as you can see, I did some serious work for nothing. That would not have been half as bad had the ending been good, but the plot felt as jumbled after the explanation as before and murderer's identity plus motive was underwhelming. I honestly would have been more impressed had Frits Kieviet pulled out as the off-page, but ever present, murderer. That really bugs me.

This series isn't a collection modern, five-star masterpieces of detective fiction posing as Dutch police procedural, but the quality is admirably maintained throughout the previous novels and why I've been fanboying about it for the past five years. Inspector De Klerck and the Silent Hope completely missed the mark, for me at least. As pleasantly written as the previous novels, but the plot is uncharacteristically messy. That's the drawback for Golden Age detective fans of following a new series, you can't cherry pick the best titles. I'm sure Dieudonné back to his old tricks for the thirteenth De Klerck novels. Fingers crossed it will be titled Rechercheur De Klerck en de dertien katten (Inspector De Klerck and the Thirteen Cats).

Note for the curious: Well, rather a question. I ended the review of Rechercheur De Klerck en de status in moord (Inspector De Klerck and the Status in Murder, 2024) promising to do “Hit List” ranking the first twelve titles in the series. I know the series is untranslated and not accessible to most readers of this blog, which is why they never generate much discussion. Only exception, for obvious reasons, is the third title, Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020). So... wanted to know if anyone's actually interested for top 12 of this series?

Inspector De Klerck and the Status in Murder (2024) by P. Dieudonné

During the summer, E-Pulp published the tenth novel in P. Dieudonné's Rotterdam police series, Rechercheur De Klerck en de sluier van de dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death, 2024), which is a double-sized politieroman to mark the series' first milestone – reason why its publication was delayed several months. So didn't expect them to keep to the customary schedule of two novels a year, but the eleventh title in the series was recently published. And it's better than the previous, double-sized De Klerck mystery!

Rechercheur De Klerck en de status in moord (Inspector De Klerck and the Status in Murder, 2024) begins with a request to Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver, of the Rotterdam police, to assist the harbor police investigate a suspicious death. One that looks an awfully lot like murder.

In the Veerhaven, a luxurious sailing yacht has been deliberately sunk and divers found the body of a woman floating inside, but the doors where sealed shut from the outside to keep her from escaping – turning the yacht into an inescapable death trap. De Klerck and Klaver quickly find out that the victim, Ismene Duetz, gave people around her plenty of reason to be glad someone gave her a one-way trip to the bottom of the river. Ismene was recently deserted by her long-suffering, browbeaten and now ex-husband, Ivo Lambriex, which is why she was temporarily living on her yacht. That ties-in with her favorite hobby: brown-nosing the Dutch aristocracy ("she absolutely adored the nobility...").

Ismene is friends with Lady Noëlle de Beauchateau, daughter of Lord Maximiliaan de Beauchateau, who is engaged to Baron van Feyesslink tot Elzeveld. Before her engagement to the Baron, Noëlle was dating the owner of a struggling diving supply store, Peter Versantvoort. Ismene got wind of Peter's financial troubles and told the Lord about. Similarly warned Noëlle about potential future advances from her brother, IJsbrand ("blue blood marries blue blood"). So more than enough to keep to the two inspectors busy for some time, but further complications arise when a member of the aristocracy is shot and a third, very surprising death. None of these murders follows the pattern expected from a Baantjer-style politieroman, which in this case added to the fun.

That third, final death really took me by surprise as it made me second guess my deductions, because it looked like a daring attempt to present De Klerck and Klaver with an easy solution to close the case – which didn't turn out to be the case. But an interesting turn of events. And was on the right track all along!

Dieudonné returned with Inspector De Klerck and the Status in Murder to previous novels like Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020), Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021) and Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongewenste dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death, 2023) by presenting an old-school detective novel as a contemporary politieroman a la Baantjer. All very fairly clued, too. There are a couple of important pieces of information given late into the story, but, if you spotted the clues and hints, they shouldn't come like bolt from the blue. So what more can I say about this early Sinterklaas present that hasn't already been said in previous reviews? This series continues to be a rare treat giving me a double shot of nostalgia and something to sooth that detective itch in my own language! In that regard, Inspector De Klerck and the Status in Murder is another success story and a strong, solid entry in the series. I look forward to the next one and plan to do another “Hit List” blog-post ranking the first dozen De Klerck novels when it gets published.

A note for the curious: I wonder how many readers heard these words in their head when the murderer was revealed (SPOILER/ROT13), “qebzzryf, qebzzryf ra abt rraf qebzzryf, qvr pybja ra qvr npebonng!” :)

Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death (2024) by P. Dieudonné

Five years ago, P. Dieudonné debuted with Rechercheur De Klerck en het doodvonnis (Inspector De Klerck and the Death Sentence, 2019) and since Dutch politieromans (police novels) à la A.C. Baantjer are as a rule shortish novels, Dieudonné has written two novels every year since then – even updating the tried and tested Baantjer formula. So what happened to the first of two releases of 2024 that should have been out for months now?

Rechercheur De Klerck en de sluier van de dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death, 2024) is the tenth entry in the Inspector De Klerck series and, to mark this milestone, E-Pulp Publishers told Dieudonné that "the tenth book could be a bit thicker." The delay was due to Dieudonné having to write a longer novel and was very curious to see what was done with the roughly hundred extra pages. Was it going to be a police-thriller with a hunt for a serial killer, another impossible crime extravaganza like Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) or returning to the first novel with a homage to Baantjer? However, the "most complicated case" in the careers of the inspectors Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver turned out to be something different altogether.

De Klerck and Klaver, of the Rotterdam police, are called to a thrift store where a gruesome discovery was made inside a newly arrived, secondhand freezer.

A customer who wanted to inspect the freezer found the battered, partially dressed body of woman inside who bears a striking resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, but no identification, phone, money or jewelry – except for the red dress used to cover the body. The red dress is identified as an abaya that came with a hijab or veil. De Klerck notes that "both garments formed a dissonance in her appearance" as the victim's resemblance was deliberate. Right down to a cheek tattoo to replicate the tiny pigment spot. But without a name or solid clues as a starting point, De Klerck and Klaver turn their attention to the freezer.

The freezer was donated by Emir's Ice Palace, but the owner, Emir Çelik, denies any involvement ("it's not my habit to hide corpses in freezers") or knowing the victim. But when they go over CCTV footage of the ice salon, they see a veiled woman reasonable fitting the description of the victim enter the salon. And going to the backroom like she had done it before. Almost like she belonged there. Only she never came out. The old freezer was standing out back, waiting to be picked up, which can only be reached by a boat. So things begin to look grave for Emir Çelik when De Klerck and Klaver learns his marriage is going to rough patch. Zeynep Çelik has left their home and taken a room in Hotel Hollywood, "each room inspired by one of the major productions from Hollywood's Golden Age," which provides them with another lead. The hotel security footage shows the veiled lady going into the hotel with luggage and leaving without it, but why did the hotel denied she was a guest?

De Klerck and Klaver peddle between the hotel and ice saloon as the complications and contradictions pile on to the very end, which once again shows Dieudonné has knack for spinning a good deal of complexity out of ultimately simple situations and sordid crimes. I can't divulge much more about the plot details without spoilers. So let's take a different track to round down this review.

In many ways, Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death is a typical Dutch politieroman as formulated by Baantjer. A style of crime fiction a little bit different from the customary detective novels and police procedurals, because they tend to be more about what-happened-and-why than who and how – former decides how much of a sway the latter has over the plot. That's why you won't find many impossible crimes, dying messages or unbreakable alibis in the novels by Baantjer and his many imitators. Generally, they try to keep things clear, uncluttered and readable without too many unnecessary complications like locked rooms or dying clues. Last year, I returned to Baantjer by rereading one of his late period novels and one of the comments said it book sounded fun, but probably out of their wheelhouse. Fair enough, especially for the detective fans who follow this blog. After all, we're an eccentric lot who have certain demands when it comes to the plot.

Practically everyone who tried to be next "Baantjer" only copied his style with a few tweaks and cosmetic changes, but Dieudonné is the first who took the formula and developed it further. Such as loosening the tight formula, depicting the world of today and injecting some sorely needed plot complexity. I've said this before in previous reviews, but Baantjer never could have written, or plotted, novels like Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death and Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death. Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death pleasingly creates "an endless labyrinth of possibilities" out of very simple complications. Not what I expected from the tenth, double-sized De Klerck novel, but neither am I complaining and it's always a special treat to read mysteries with substantial plots in my own language. So imagine how pleased I'm with this excellent series as a whole. Just needs another locked room-centric novel with a meaty impossible crime plot to continue this run of success! :D

So, in closing, Dieudonné is the pupil who surpassed the master and hope it won't take forever for the rest of the country to catch on. Until then, I look forward to the eleventh outing of De Klerck and Klaver. Fingers crossed it will be out before the end of the year!

Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death (2023) by P. Dieudonné

Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongewenste dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death, 2023) is the ninth novel by the increasingly prolific Dutch mystery novelist, P. Dieudonné, who debuted only four years ago with Rechercheur De Klerck en het doodvonnis (Inspector De Klerck and the Death Sentence, 2019) – a tribute to A.C. Baantjer. In those four short years, Dieudonné made the format of the Baantjer-style politieroman (police roman) his own and added a feature that had been sorely lacking. Plot complexity! Baantjer always said he simply places "a body somewhere and then I start writing." So even though this series can feel and even read like an authentic "Baantjer," only with different characters in another city, it's the plots that differentiates this series from the master and his many imitators over the decade. They could not have written, or rather plotted, a novel like Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) or Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021). The latest addition to the De Klerck series takes the cake where plot complexity is concerned.

Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death begins relatively normally enough as Inspector Lucien de Klerck, of the Rotterdam police, listens to a man who has come to the police to emphatically deny he's a murderer. Richard Spijkers is a reformed criminal who had a run-in with De Klerck fifteen years ago, "a coffee shop robbery" with "the getaway car almost causing a fatal accident," but since then he has "never... almost never.. deviated from the straight and narrow" – except one time. Spijkers works for an importer of strong liquors that also has its own shop for regular customers and Spijkers has been selling expensive bottles under the counter. And pocketed a few hundred euros extra every week. Only his conscience started acting up and stopped two months ago, but then a colleague, Karin Voshart, began blackmailing him. It began with demands for small sums of money, but that evening he was supposed to pay two thousand euros ("I can't possibly cough up that much dough"). There's another reason why Spijkers decided to come clean to the police. Spijkers was called by an anonymous number accusing him of having killed Karin Voshart at the muziekkoepel in the Julianapark in Schiedam ("...cowardly stabbed in the back").

This case places more on their plate than Inspectors Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver initially realize. Nobody has reported a murder or discovery of a body in the Julianapark and her aunts tells them her niece is alive and well. Just nowhere to be found. She's not the only one who's either unreachable or gone missing altogether. Meanwhile, Spijkers looks less reliable, honest and reformed with every twist and turn of the story. A mere day later, Spijkers is back at the police station to report another murder and emphasizes he didn't commit that murder either. This time, the body is found with two more coming their way before the case draws to a close. So what the hell is going on?

A question that's easier posed than solved as Dieudonné tiptoed across an incredibly treacherous and slippery tight-rope with this plot. Something very tricky, and very difficult to pull-off convincingly. Some would even argue it's nigh impossible, because a sizable amount of coincidence is unavoidable and this certainly the case Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death. You can generously call the coincidence here an exercise in cause-and-effect, but I simply admired Dieudonné deciding to play this game on hard mode and made it as difficult as possible for himself to properly execute that tricky idea – while trying to be generous himself with the clues and hints. Not that it was of any help to me. I got completely lost in the compact, 120-page labyrinth of a plot. This half-baked hypothesis is the closest I came to the correct solution (ROT13): Gur svefg gjb ivpgvzf xvyyrq rnpu bgure. N fnintrq O va gur cnex naq O sngnyyl jbhaqrq N jvgu n fgno va gur onpx. Fb n qlvat O yrnirf gur pevzr fprar naq P pbzrf nybat gb uvqr gur obql va beqre gb cebgrpg Q (be K), orpnhfr P gubhtug Q (be K) unq xvyyrq N. Yeah, that messy solution collapsed as soon as it was held up to the facts ("...fgehpx gur urneg zhfpyr"). So was completely surprised when De Klerck's little dramatic trap ensnared the last person I expected. Well played, Dieudonné! Well played.

Not everyone is going to be left convinced by the solution, but the plot is admirably handled and firmly held together, from beginning to end, which definitely helped its plausibility. And that it's a Dutch detective novel only makes it so much better. Detective stories of this quality were only sporadically published in Dutch until E-Pulp came along. So, to cut a rambling review short, Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongewenste dood is een politieroman voor de liefhebbers van échte detective verhalen.

A note for the curious: a tenth, so far untitled novel is currently in the work and I'm going to do a ranking of the first De Klerck mysteries when it comes out next year. Fingers crossed it has a title along the lines of Rechercheur De Klerck en moord achter slot en grendel (Inspector De Klerck and Murder Under Lock and Key).

Inspector De Klerck and a Fatal Compromise (2023) by P. Dieudonné

I remarked in previous commentaries of the Inspector De Klerck series that P. Dieudonné is the first writer to not only succeed in emulating A.C. Baantjer's format for what has become the oer-Hollandse police procedural, or politieroman (police novel), to perfection, but managed to make it his own – expanding and building on it rather than living off it fumes. This series is no attempt at a cash clone or nostalgia act as has been attempted in the past. Dieudonné is the Adrian Monk to Baantjer's Lt. Columbo. So the series certainly bears a resemblance to its illustrious fore-bearer and hits a nostalgic note, or two, along the way, but, internally, does its own thing. For one, Dieudonné grounded the series in the world of today and another is that his plots have a tendency to tighter, knottier affairs than those found in Baantjer's novels. Not to mention the variety in stories and type of plots, while remaining stylistically uniform. 

Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021) imported inner city problems from American and turned it into a theatrically-staged whodunit. Rechercheur De Klerck en het duistere web (Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web, 2022) dives down the rabbit hole of internet conspiracy theories in which one of the victims scrawled a dying message in blood. Rechercheur De Klerck en een dodelijk pact (Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact, 2022) is a bizarre, pulp-style police procedural about wholesale murder and a vanishing chalet. So, naturally, the plot-mechanics of the eighth novel also differs from its predecessors. 

Rechercheur De Klerck en een fataal compromise (Inspector De Klerck and a Fatal Compromise, 2023) begins with a fun bit of banter between Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver on so-called serious critics and reviewers. De Klerck had appeared in a book as "an unnamed Rotterdam detective," but literary critics "found it unbelievable, out of date, that the main character was happily married" and "had no drug addicted kids" or "even a father suffering from dementia who always paints the same chicken" – simply "not acceptable to the gentlemen reviewers." Things get serious when De Klerck and Klaver are called to a community garden, Jouw Paradijs (Your Paradise), where the body of a woman has been found hanging from a tree. The police officer on the spot suspects it might be murder rather than suicide.

The victim is identified as a widow of three years, Sandra Stobbelaer-van Belzen, who has been living with her brother-in-law at his farm since her husband passed away and made a bit of a mess of her personal life.

Sandra had an illicit affair with a married woman, Mireille van Houten, whose wife, Regina van Houten, "tolerates no rival." But her family relations were also severely disrupted over an inheritance. Sandra's brother, Pieter, was not pleased when discovering that the inheritance from their Uncle Gerardus was substantially less than expected and accused his sister of draining their uncle's bank account ("...always managed to wind Uncle Gerardus around her cunning little finger"). She got the same complaint from her cousin, Arnoud de Rouwe. Sandra and Pieter's older brother, Henk, tells De Klerck how he wondered if there was something more to the death of their uncle. And perhaps Pieter was ticked-off about something more serious than a meager inheritance. There are other factors complicating De Klerck and Klaver's investigation. The secretary of the community garden, Bart Muurling, who discovered the body is incapable of telling a straight, truthful story. A gold ring that had been a heirloom since the family still lived in the Dutch East Indies and another bone of contention among the heirs of Uncle Gerardus. Why did a dead tourist carry a newspaper clipping with the obituary of Uncle Gerardus?

So, despite its modern exterior and up-to-date characters, the plot on which Inspector De Klerck and a Fatal Compromise runs is that of 1930s whodunit with its unbreakable alibis, heritage hazards, a dysfunctional family and a missing heirloom – ending with a gathering and confrontation of all the suspects. Dieudonné and De Klerck attempted, admirably so, to go for a rug-puller of ending, but only partially succeeded.

The revelation of the murderer itself certainly had an element of surprise about it, when it was sprung on the reader, but its effect got somewhat bogged down in the complicated misdirection. And the explanation threw some extra, impossible to anticipate weight behind something important regarding the motive, which I thought was a trifle weak and an unconvincing motive to snuff out several people. Nevertheless, while the ending, particularly the motive, could have been improved upon, Inspector De Klerck and a Fatal Compromise holds up the overall quality of the series and still leagues ahead of the average Dutch politieroman. That's not damning with faint praise. Your average, Dutch politieroman seldom has anything more than a very basic plots that lean heavily on the series-character and location to carry the day. Playing around with concepts like clueing, misdirection, alibi-breaking, dying messages and impossible crimes was practically unheard of until E-Pulp arrived on the scene. Perhaps that's why nobody who tried to step into Baantjer's shoes enjoyed his longevity. Dieudonné and De Klerck have so much more to offer than a warm, humanistic homicide cop and book covers with city scenes. That being said, I very much enjoyed the little subplot playing out in the background of the story showing that something different can be done with the tried-and-tested.

So you place all of the blame for still not having revisited the work of Baantjer solely on this series, because it has been doing an excellent job in satiating those nostalgic cravings. I eagerly look forward to Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongewenste dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Unwanted Death, 2023). 

A note for the curious: I shoved this review in between scheduled posts, because didn't want to reschedule any of the planned posts, but came at the cost of yesterday's review of Brian Flynn's Reverse the Charges (1943). So if you missed it, you can find it here.

Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact (2022) by P. Dieudonné

P. Dieudonné's Rechercheur De Klerck en een dodelijk pact (Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact, 2022) is the seventh case for those two Rotterdam police inspectors, Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver, who find themselves this time slowly being edged towards pulp territory – culminating into one of their most bizarre cases to date. This is what makes the series so fun to read as Dieudonné tries to introduce something different or new to the formula of the Dutch politieroman (police novel) the late A.C. Baantjer created, which tends to be a little different and more straightforward than the Anglo detective story. So you rarely, if ever, get familiar tropes like isolated crime scenes, dying messages or locked room murders in a Dutch police novel. That certainly is not the case with this series.

For example, Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) strings together no less than three impossible crimes, while Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021) imported a heavily leaded slice of Urban Americana as camouflage for a classical and theatrically-staged whodunit. The previous entry in the series, Rechercheur De Klerck en het duistere web (Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web, 2022), tumbled down the rabbit hole of internet conspiracies and has a victim who left a dying message written in blood. So it was only a matter of time before the series would produce an authentic piece of, what I like to call, oranje pulp (orange pulp). 

Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact begins normally enough as De Klerck's goes to work and overhears two people, a man and woman, talking on the metro. They're obviously colleagues on their way to work and De Klerck hears them speak disparagingly of two men from work, Lammert ("...hopping around like he owns the business") and Huub ("they can drink his blood") – described respectively as "een koele kikker" ("a cold frog") and "een opgeblazen kikker" ("a puffed frog"). Which translates to one being cold and calculating while the other believes he's the male equivalent of a winning lottery ticket. So nothing particular worrying as De Klerck merely overheard two people complaining about people they know from work, but the frogs come back into the picture when he arrives at the police station.

Several days ago, Paulien Captein reported her husband, Hubèrt Captein, missing and he still hasn't returned home to her and their two children over the weekend. It turns out Hubèrt Captein is Huub who owns and runs a sporting goods store, Capteins Passie voor Sport. De Klerck guesses correctly their marriage is not nearly as good as Paulien wants him to believe and learns from his employees he has "an insatiable, obsessive need for female flesh." Still a normal and pretty routine disappearance case, but then De Klerck and Klaver receive the news that a corpse is sitting on the bank of the Meidoornsingel.

The body of the man "sat on the bank with his back bent, arms wrapped around his body and chin resting on his chest" while "his legs hung over the stone facing in the gray water" and his eyes were closed. A small, bright blue frog with black dots was placed on the top of his head! Curiously, they were both frozen solid without any marks of violence or traces of drugs or poison. And the theatrical staging requires "the involvement of at least two perpetrators, possibly even three." Since a body, "frozen to the bone," is far too heavy to be handled by one person alone.

This is not the last time De Klerck and Klaver come across a corpse, frozen in sitting position, chilling on the bank of a canal with a bright, hellish blue frog on their heads – as their investigation takes on increasingly bizarre proportions. Why had every victim a number tattooed on their body? What is the significance of the nursery rhyme? Is there a link between the murders and the seven deadly sins or Dante's Divine Comedy? There's even an appropriately bizarre, but brilliantly executed, impossible situation taking place in the background of the story. A witness comes to De Klerck claiming to have seen one of the people concerned in his investigation entering a beautiful chalet with white, plaster shutters and lights burning behind the windows. However, when they go to the location, the Swiss-style chalet has mysteriously disappeared! You locked room and impossible crime maniacs know that the problem with impossibly vanishing rooms, houses and even whole streets is their limitations in the number of possible solutions, but Dieudonné came up with something a little different here. Something perfectly suited for the pulp-style plot and put to excellent use by De Klerck ("een kunstgreep") to ensnare the killers. It's easily my favorite part of the book and a reminder I really need to update the list of Dutch-language locked room mysteries one of these days.

I missed this until I began writing the review, but Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact is not only Dieudonné's take on the good, old-fashioned pulps of yesteryear. It's also a nod and wink at Baantjer's own attempt at writing a thoroughly weird, pulp-style mystery novel, De Cock en de naakte juffer (DeKok and the Naked Lady, 1978). You only have to look at the cover to get an idea how weird that book turned out to be. The book was the twelfth DeKok novel (officially numbered 14 because the publisher added two in-universe novels to the series) and Baantjer celebrated the occasion with a dozen murders. Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact, seventh entry in the series, has the number seven stamped all over its plot.

Regrettably, DeKok and the Naked Lady is not only Baantjer's weirdest mystery novel, but also one of his weakest and the cheat ending would likely anger me, if encountered today. Dieudonné fared a lot better than his illustrious predecessor in bringing together the Dutch politieroman and pulp fiction. Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact is not, what you can call, classically clued as it omitted some of the plot-polish and kept one, or two, details deliberately vague (ROT13: jung, rknpgyl, unccrarq gb gur obql bs gur zvffvat zna?) to give it that authentic pulp feeling. So you can only make an educated guess as to who's behind the murders and motive with the how being the strongest element, detective storywise, of the plot, but there's a kind of a silly hint pointing into the direction of one of the culprits. You really have to read the book as a piece of pulp fiction with all its strong points (imaginative plots, bizarre murders and elaborate tricks) and weak spots (often faintly clued). I suppose not every reader will be as picky, in my country, when it comes to such things.

So, while not the strongest plotted title in the series, Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact is yet another very well written, highly readable and enjoyable entry in the series. Dieudonné and De Klerck have truly emerged from the shadows of Baantjer and DeKok to stands on its own as something both almost nostalgically familiar and distinctly different. This series is an example of how you can build on the rich past to create something new for the future. I very much look forward what the direction eighth title will take.

Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web (2022) by P. Dieudonné

Last year, I reviewed P. Dieudonné's Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021) and wrote how the series is the first to succeed in emerging from the shadow of the master of the Dutch politieroman (police novel), Appie Baantjer, whose formula has often been copied – only superficially and rarely as good. Dieudonné retained the familiar style, format and storyteller, but changed the backdrop from the overused Amsterdam to Rotterdam and gave more weight to the plots than his illustrious predecessor. This series is also much more grounded in today's world. 

So while Rechercheur De Klerck en het doodvonnis (Inspector De Klerck and the Death Sentence, 2019) and Rechercheur De Klerck en het duivelse spel (Inspector De Klerck and the Diabolical Game, 2020) would not be out of place among Baantjer's own work, you can't say the same about the subsequent novels. Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) combined three seemingly impossible disappearances with the daredevil antics of a fugitive motor cyclist and Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene camouflages a finely-plotted whodunit with an American-style rivalry between two rap groups. You can call it a contemporary take on the theatrical mystery that's inextricably linked to the traditional detective story.

It has been tremendously fun and rewarding to have seen this series getting build from the ground up, which continues to improve while trying to do something different with each novel. And the latest title in the series is no exception. 

Rechercheur De Klerck en het duistere web (Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web, 2022) is the sixth title in the series and is not so much about whodunit as what-is-going-on-here as Dieudonné's two detectives, Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver, tumble down a rabbit hole of internet conspiracies – nearly igniting a small, localized popular revolt on the way down. This all begins when an elderly lady turns to De Klerck to anonymously report a crime of enormous proportions. She believes there's a powerful network of highly placed pedophiles and "a dark web has been stretched to catch children," but De Klerck is surprised when she names a prominent prosecutor, Simon Bödeker, as "the spider in this dark web." Even more curious is the story she presents De Klerck as evidence. She went to Bödeker's home to confront him, but he didn't answer the door and she heard "the helpless whimper of a child" that was locked inside the house. So now she's afraid to get murdered to ensure her silence.

De Klerck is a sober-minded, skeptical policeman and believes a plot does not necessary have to be found in "the shadowy catacombs of the conspiracy theorists." He believes "a dark web is beings spun with the intent to discredit some high-ranking people" and "to besmirch their reputation," but facts begin to turn against the prosecutor when the body of the elderly lady is dragged out of the water near his home. She had been hit over the head with a brick and drowned. Bödeker does precious little to diminish suspicion heaped upon him by his questionable, highly unethical behavior. De Klerck and Klaver begin to feel pressure from both the public and the higher ups.

On the one hand, they have to deal with a citizen journalist and crusader, Patrick Plaggenmarsch, whose website is the main source of the suggestive, subtly presented accusations against the prosecutor – tiptoeing the line between free speech and libel. The website has a dedicated following that can be mobilized and present a volatile element in the case, which is not helped when Plaggenmarsh begins to comment on the investigation. Demanding justice for their fallen heroine, accusing the Rotterdam police of a lack of professionalism and promising his readers new revelations. On the other hand, De Klerck begins to wonder if Plaggenmarsh accidentally hit the mark with his conspiracy theory as some potential key witnesses or suspects died under what could be termed suspicious circumstances. De Klerck also crosses swords with the acting Chief of Police, Commissioner De Froideville, who tries to prevent De Klerck from bothering the beleaguered prosecutor. So is there an actual conspiracy and an attempt to hush it up?

Like I said previously, Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web is more of a what-is-going-on-here than a proper whodunit and the murderer's identity, as well as the motive, suggested itself early on in the story (ROT13/SPOILER: V nyjnlf rlr Tbbq Fnznevgnaf jvgu tenir fhfcvpvba va qrgrpgvir fgbevrf). A grave suspicion that became a certainty when a second murder is discovered and the victim left behind a dying message "written in blood." Dying messages are even rarer in Dutch detective fiction than locked room murders and impossible crimes with the only examples coming to mind being Ton Vervoort's Moord onder astrologen (Murder Among Astrologists, 1963) and Anne van Doorn's De man die zijn geweten ontlastte (The Man Who Relieves His Conscience, 2019). So it was nice to come across another one here.

So while the ending failed to take me by complete surprise, the intention of Inspector De Klerck and the Dark Web was not necessarily figuring out whodunit, but what had happened and you need to fill a lot of details to get a complete picture of the plot – which logically fits together and beautifully contrasts with its conspiratorial premise. Not quite as good as Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death and Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, but maintains the high standard of the previous entries in the series. I eagerly look forward to the next title which could very well be Dieudonné trying his hands at a pulpier version of the Dutch politieroman. Rechercheur De Klerck en een dodelijk pact (Inspector De Klerck and a Deadly Pact, 2022), scheduled to be published in November, concerns the owner of a sporting goods store who "went up in smoke" before his body is found sitting at the banks of the water with "a bright blue frog" on his head. Like one of those brightly colored, poisonous frogs or a tattoo? I'm already intrigued!

Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene (2021) by P. Dieudonné

Back in 2019, P. Dieudonné followed in the footsteps of the late A.C. Baantjer with his debut novel, Rechercheur De Klerck en het doodvonnis (Inspector De Klerck and the Death Sentence, 2019), written as a tribute to the master of the Dutch politieroman, but Dieudonné began to differentiate himself from other Baantjer imitators in his subsequent novels – even improving on the old man himself. Rechercheur De Klerck en het duivelse spel (Inspector De Klerck and the Diabolical Game, 2020) added more plot complexity to the true and tried Baantjer formula. Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) is a full-blown, neo-classical detective novel with no less than three impossible crimes and my personal favorite so far. Rechercheur De Klerck en het lijk in transito (Inspector De Klerck and the Corpse in Transit, 2021) is a traditional detective story masquerading as a contemporary police novel. 

Rechercheur De Klerck en moord in scène (Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene, 2021) plays a similar game as its predecessor, but improved on it as the Inspectors Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver have to digest a heavily leaded slice of Urban Americana in Rotterdam. But, as the detective story has learned its readers over the centuries, nothing can be more deceiving than outward appearances. 

Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene begins with De Klerck putting down the Rotterdams Dagblad and remarks to Klaver that "the youth is unhinged, orphaned" in response to an article about the discovery of drugs, fireworks and weapons in the lockers of a high school – including "a hand grenade and a loaded gun." Klaver puts it down to puberty and hormones, but that doesn't wash with the old detective and De Klerck fears that "today's street urchins are tomorrow's hitmen." And that's when their shift really begins. A skipper and old friend of De Klerck reports someone attempted to throw a gun into the water from a bridge, but the loaded, recently fired gun landed on his boat. Klaver remarks they might have gotten hold of a murder weapon and CCTV footage of the various bridges could catch them a killer before his crime is discovered ("we have never worked so fast"). Just a moment later, they're called to the Parkkade where the Harbor Police pulled a body out of the water.

The victim is very well-known to the police, Robin Breidenbach, who's "an equally popular and notorious Rotterdam rap artist." Breidenbach was known as Da Rotting Thug and his "incendiary raps" earned him admiration as well as a ton of enemies, which include an escalating blood feud with Yunus Özütok's De Leftbank Militia from Rotterdam South. A year ago, Özütok was stabbed and robbed, but he blamed Breidenbach. Two weeks later, Breidenbach's cousin was stabbed and seriously wounded by a member of De Leftbank Militia, which left him with a limb. Justin Breidenbach never mentioned this to De Klerck and Klaver, but directed their attention to his cousin's producer, Daan de Rooij. Apparently, they were having a disagreement over royalties. De Klerck sees a parallel with a "rivalry between rappers from New York and their more successful Californian colleagues" in which the two figureheads of the feud, Tupac Shakur from Los Angeles and Notorious B.I.G. from New York, were shot and killed. Is history repeating itself a quarter of a century later in Rotterdam?

So not really the plot-ingredients you expect to find in a detective story with a more traditional bend and Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene does have all the outward appearances of an uncomplicated, modern-day police novel. Dieudonné gradually and effectively spins a complicated puzzle out of an apparently ordinary and sordid crime with every new piece of information that's unearthed bringing both clarity and posing new questions. Like peeling an onion in reverse! I was reminded of the commentary on Christopher Bush's plotting-technique "of starting with very little information (victim's identity) and working outward, lightening up the darkness." A very fitting description of the plot and how it progressed with (for example) the discovery of the original scene of the crime revealing that the murder was a tricky and complicated affair, which would not have been out of place in a Golden Age mystery novel – except perhaps for the clothing and music. While the clues and red herrings were not thickly spread around the story, the ones that were present were on a whole of a good quality. The central clue is not so much a traditional clue as it's a curious, very subtly planted anomaly (oyhr, havsbezrq nyvovf) doubling as a slippery red herring. Something you either spot and note as a suspicious coincidence or miss entirely, but, if you spot it, you can work out the solution.

When I read the synopsis, I assumed Dieudonné was going to go easy on the plot this time around and dreaded having to bang out a lukewarm review, but Inspector De Klerck and Murder on the Scene exceeded all my expectations and ranks alongside Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death as the best the series (so far) has to offer. A series that's fast becoming a personal favorite as its soothing to my nostalgic cravings and meets my demands for good, quality plots. Dieudonné, De Klerck and Klaver deserve to be introduced to an international, English-speaking audience who will be more appreciative of them. But, in the meanwhile, I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one!

If you haven't had your fill of untranslated, Dutch-language detective fiction, I recently reviewed Vanno's De moord op het sloependek (The Murder on the Boat Deck, 1941) and Anne van Doorn's Meer mysteries voor Robbie Corbijn (More Mysteries for Robbie Corbijn, 2021). And, yes, I crammed this review into a few planned posts, because didn't want to wait with posting the review until January.

Inspector De Klerck and the Corpse in Transit (2021) by P. Dieudonné

Last year, I reviewed P. Dieudonné's third novel, Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020), which spectacularly broke away from the Amsterdam School of Dutch politieromans (police novels) to present a classically-styled detective novel coated with a modern varnish – centering on no less than three fantastically done, dare devil impossible crimes. Not something you would expect from A.C. Baantjer or his followers. 

So I wondered what, exactly, Dieudonné had in store with his fourth novel, Rechercheur De Klerck en het lijk in transito (Inspector De Klerck and the Corpse in Transit, 2021). An unbreakable alibi? A dying message? Another impossible crime or locked room mystery? The story turned out to be a straightforward, Baantjer-style police novel, like Rechercheur De Klerck en het doodvonnis (Inspector De Klerck and the Death Sentence, 2019), but with more plot-threads, solid piece of misdirection and a genuine whodunit pull.

Alexander van Oldenborgh is the fourth-generation director of Van Oldenborgh International Movers, specialized in removals on a global scale, who came to Inspectors Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver, of the Rotterdam police, to file a report – as he has been receiving telephone calls and letters with "a threatening, insinuating undertone." The threats come from an ex-employee, Jos van Trijffel, who raped a female co-worker thirty years ago and "simply disappeared from the face of the earth." Shortly after Van Oldenborch's departure, De Klerck and Klaver are dispatched to a brothel where a man has been shot and killed before he could get back in his car.

The victim happens to be a long-time employee of Van Oldenborch's company, Wilbert de Zeeuw, who caught Van Trijffel in the act thirty years ago before he escaped and disappeared. But is there a connection or merely a coincidence? De Zeeuw was talking with a man at the club, named Eddy, who was overheard saying to the victim "don't think I'm going to save your ass." He also had more money than can be accounted by his salary. So was De Zeeuw a casualty of "a heated conflict among criminals" or the victim of a revenge killing? De Klerck and Klaver have more on their plate than just this one murder. 

Inspector De Klerck and the Corpse in Transit opened with Klaver telling De Klerck that the half-decomposed, unidentified remains of a man was discovered that morning on the Maasvlakte inside a shipping container from New Jersey. He was shot to death with the crime scene likely being on the other side of the world, which is a nightmare for both the American and Dutch police. So they're glad the case is a problem for the harbor police, but, as you probably guessed, there's a link with their investigation. However, the solution to this plot-thread is not as obvious as it appeared to be on first sight. On a somewhat lighter note is the friendly competition playing out in the background between the police of Rotterdam and Utrecht to catch a slippery lingerie thief.

Somehow, one way or another, everything is linked with the elusive, ever-present Van Trijffel in the background who might actually be responsible for thinning out the ranks of suspects as all of the murders carry the same M.O. – two gunshots to the chest. Dieudonné played a marvelous, but risky, hand in tying everything together while trying to distract the reader away from the murderer. I had my suspicions about the murderer, but this character was such a strange, oddly-behaving piece of the puzzle that I didn't know where, or how, it exactly fitted into the plot. So when that was explained, I felt a little cheated at first, but it really wasn't a cheat at all. Just a clever bit of misdirection that walked a fine, slippery tightrope with the stone cold motive being hardest part to swallow. Something that initially didn't ring entirely true, but, on second thought, it made sense and was (kind of) hinted at. Let's just say Dieudonné and De Klerck got the better of me here. 

Inspector De Klerck and the Corpse in Transit can be summed as an old school whodunit, masquerading as a contemporary police novel, which gratefully exploited the modern world to create a knottier, more intricate plot than usually found in these type of police novels of the Amsterdam School. More importantly, Dieudonné figured out how to write a Baantjer-style novel without becoming a pale, watered-down imitation. So many have tried over the decades. For example, they gave the 2000s TV adaptation of Janwillem van de Wetering's Grijpstra & De Gier a diluted, Baantjer-like formula. Even the man himself, Appie Baantjer, tried to catch lightening in a bottle twice when he co-created the Bureau Raampoort series with Simon de Waal in 2009, but they never got it down quite right. Most of them were more concerned with the recreating the superficial features that sold close to ten million copies and kept millions of viewers glued to the TV for more than a decade.

So most of his imitators and following have little more to offer than a nostalgic placebo, but Dieudonné created with Lucien de Klerck and Ruben Klaver that can breath on its own without being weighed down by the comparison, because he did two things radically different. Dieudonné smartly moved away from Amsterdam as a setting, which has been done to death, but also the attention given to the plots makes the series standout. Very few Dutch writers who tried their hands at one of these police novels gives this much care and attention to the plot, clueing and misdirection or continually showed improvement.

Needless to say, this series comes highly recommended to all my Dutch readers and look forward to the next installment.

Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death (2020) by P. Dieudonné

P. Dieudonné's Rechercheur De Klerck en de ongrijpbare dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death, 2020) is the third novel in the series of Rotterdam politieromans (police novels) about Inspector Lucien de Klerck and his assistant, Ruben Klaver, but this time, Dieudonné breaks the mold of the Amsterdam School of the Dutch police novel – popularized by the late A.C. Baantjer. Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death is a traditional-styled detective novel, updated to the 21st century, with not one, not two, but three impossible disappearances! These impossibilities are something else compared to your garden variety no-footprints situation or a homely locked room murder.

The story begins with a cleaning lady finding the body of her employer, Romano Pasqualini, lying in the front room on the first floor of his home, in Delfshaven, with the back of his head resembling "a mushy mess of blood and hair." An important detail ensuring the reader there was a man in that room who was as dead as a doornail. She immediately alerted the police and posted herself at the front door until they arrived.

A short time later, De Klerck is cycling to work when he notices the squad car and stops to offer his assistance to the two policemen, but what greets him on the first floor landing is "a suffocating smoke" coming through the cracks of the door – inside the room a fire was spreading rapidly. But what he didn't see was a body! When the firefighters had done their work, they discover that the windows were locked from the inside with exception of a small skylight that's "too small to squeeze through" and "virtually inaccessible." Nobody could have escaped through the front door with either the cleaning lady or the police standing there. So how did the body vanish with the same question applying to the person who made it disappear and attempted to torch the place?

De Klerck and Klaver have their work cut out for them and the disappearance of Romano Pasqualini's body is not the only complication in this uncertain, elusive murder case. Romano was 25-years-old and lived in an expensive, 17th century house, but made a living delivering pizzas and his prospective father-in-law is not exactly thrilled that he was seeing his daughter. Apparently not without reason.

De Klerck is approached by private detective, Fred Kroon, who working on behalf of an insurance company to track down a tightly organized gang specialized in jewel robberies and spectacular, seemingly impossible, escaped. One such occasion saw the police in hot pursuit of two gang members on a motorcycle, two police cars on their tail and a third meeting them head on, but, somewhere mid-way, they simply vanished into thin air – as the three police cars passed each other. There's a slope on both sides, overgrown with trees, with fences behind it. So it was not possible to disappear from that stretch of road. And yet... they did. A trick repeated later on in the story when a dare devil races through the city, performing dangerous stunts and leading the police on a merry-go-round, which seems to come to an end when he drives into a tunnel cordoned off by the police. Just like that, the motor cyclist disappears again and magically reappears some distance behind the police cordon, which is captured by security cameras inside the tunnel and witnessed by a police helicopter pilot in the sky!

This is why Kroon suspects Damiano Pasqualini and his young brother, Romano, play a key role in the gang, because Romano has a YouTube channel on which he uploaded videos of himself performing very risky, death defying motorcycle stunts – radiating with pride and sheer joy. Romano's dead. So he couldn't have been the one who raised hell in the city and used as a sealed tunnel as a portal to reappear behind the police cordon. I expect to find this kind of stuff in Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed series (e.g. vol. 61) or the work of Soji Shimada (e.g. "The Running Dead," 1985), but not in, what has been up to this point, a typically Dutch series of police novels. However, I'm not against this becoming the new norm.

Coming across a Dutch locked room mystery is always a special treat. I remember that shiver of excitement when reading Cor Docter's Koude vrouw in Kralingen (Cold Woman in Kralingen, 1970) in which a group of people had gathered in front of a locked bedroom door and someone flings the key under the crack of the door into the hallway. But when they open the door, all they find is a dead woman. Anne van Doorn's De man die zijn geweten ontlastte (The Man Who Relieved His Conscience, 2019) was a rare treat with two well executed impossible crimes, but Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death not only added one more for good measure, but went all out in how they were presented. But what about the solutions, you ask?

The strange disappearance of the body, and murderer, from the locked, watched and burning, smoke-filled house is the best of the three with a solution breathing new life in an old idea that had been experimented with before – only it never really worked in the past. Reason why it never worked (unless staged under tightly controlled circumstances) is it required something that's not as easy to come by as it's made out to be. Even then there's no guarantee it would work. However, the present smoothed out that problem and provided something that made the trick work in a way that wouldn't have been possible in the 1930s or '40s. Dieudonné seized it with both hands and the characterization helped to reinforce the locked room-trick.

Diedonné tipped his hand with a clue to the second impossibility that gave away how it was done, but suspect this was done on purpose to make third disappearance, and reappearance, look even more impossible. Solution to how the motorcycle went up in smoke doesn't explain how it materialized outside the tunnel. So that was nicely done. And in spite of the reckless, dare devil antics, the solutions are simple and surprisingly believable. Just as a contemporary take on the impossible crime novel, Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death is excellent and it was a joy to read.

There's more to the story than a string of miraculous vanishings. De Klerck and Klaver have to figure out what happened to the body and who's responsible, which was handled a trifle weaker than the other plot-threads. A coincidence, or two, were needed to tie everything together with one of the coincidences stretching things a little, but hardly enough to dampen my enjoyment of the book. E-Pulp gives us a glimpse with Dieudonné of the genre's Golden Age when writers were given the time and opportunities to hone their skills, improve and finding a voice of their own – hopefully building an audience along the way. Rechercheur De Klerck en het doodvonnis (Inspector De Klerck and the Death Sentence, 2019) was written as an homage to Appie Baantjer, but the plot was very light and the solution to the fascinatingly presented bridge-murders lacked ingenuity. Rechercheur De Klerck en het duivelse spel (Inspector De Klerck and the Diabolical Game, 2020) used the tried and tested Baantjer formula to write a much more traditional detective story with improved clueing and a new trick to create a cast-iron alibi. Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death is a full-blown detective novel with a tricky, complicated plot, more improved clueing and three daringly executed impossible crimes. I found this to be very rewarding and can't wait to see what the fourth, tantalizingly-titled Rechercheur De Klerck en het lijk in transit (Inspector De Klerck and the Corpse in Transit, 2021) has in store! 

Inspector De Klerck and the Elusive Death continues to improve on its predecessors and did in a most spectacular way with three originally posed and solved impossible crimes, which are too rare in this country. So highly recommended to all the Dutch-speaking readers of my blog and publishers looking for non-English crime-and detective fiction to translate.

Note to the reader: sorry for two back-to-back 2020 reviews, in as many days, but they are recent publications and didn't want to wait with posting the reviews until November. So they were squeezed in after the fact.