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Dutch Impossible Crime Novels

Page history last edited by TomCat 10 years, 6 months ago Saved with comment

A list of Dutch impossible crime mysteries.

 

Novels:

 

A.C. Baantjer's Een strop voor Bobby (A Noose for Bobby, 1963)

 

The debut of a young policeman, who went from a homicide cop to the most successful crime novelist of the Netherlands and in his inaugural novel we follow inspector Albert Versteegh as he tangles with the pimp Bobby Brakel. The first three quarters reads like a Georges Simenon study of characters, but during the final quarter of the story Bobby is swinging from a rope in the proverbial locked room. The method to lock the door from the outside is an old trick, but the clue of the electric wiring is something straight out of John Rhode's playbook.

 

M.P.O. Books' De blikvanger (The Eye-Catcher, 2010)

 

The murder of a GP, several attempts on the life of a local alderman and family tension are the focus point of this story, but towards the end there's a genuine, if simplistic, poisoning behind multiple locked doors. Books was very modest about this little side puzzle, but it was a nice and unexpected surprise and who knows what we might expect from him in the future, i.e. see the entry below.

 

M.P.O. Books' Een afgesloten huis (A Sealed House, 2013)

 

A figure head of the Dutch criminal underworld, Fred Duijster, is brutally slaughtered in his tightly secured, fortress-like home. The windows were covered with steel shutters and the grounds around the house are monitored with motion sensors that trigger overhead lights, back and front, and cameras – and they captured only one person entering and leaving the home at the time of the murder. But is he guilty? It's an impossible crime story in the same vein (and quality) as Marcia Muller's The Tree of Death (1983) and Herbert Resnicow's The Gold Solution (1983), and Books delivers a full-fledge locked room mystery this time that can be considered as one of the better titles on this list.

 

A full review can be read here.

 

Willy Corsari's De misdaad zonder fouten (The Faultless Crime, 1927)

 

The overconfident title of this less-than-successful debut is misleading, because the plot has more holes than a chunk of Swiss cheese and stinks just as bad as a piece of overripe Limburger – and the reason why I shied away from Willy Corsari for years. I remember the plot revolving around a man with a broken neck, found after breaking down the tightly locked door of his home, and it almost reads like an anti-detective story as twins, sleepwalkers and other clichés tag each other in and out. The final "twist" was just embarrassing.

 

Willy Corsari's De onbekende medespeler (The Unknown Co-Player, 1931)

 

An early, stand-alone novel taking place against the backdrop of a television-and movie company in Germany and the opening sequences of the story shows dashes of imaginative writing – rewinding and fast-forwarding between scenes like a movie. Unfortunately, the impossible stabbing of an actress in front of a rolling camera is underplayed and has a dull solution. However, it's still a mountainous improvement over her first jab at writing a locked room mystery.

 

A full review can be read here.

 

Willy Corsari's De voetstappen op de trap (Footsteps on the Stairs, 1937)  

 

A huge improvement on her first attempts at constructing a locked room mystery and centers on Sir John Judge, born as Jan Rechter, who left his native country behind to amass a fortune in Brittain, but upon his return home his past is waiting for him – ending up biting a bullet in his locked study. One essential part of the solution is withheld from the reader, but since Inspector Lund wasn't aware of this, as well, I'm willing to show some leniency on this point.

 

A full review can be read here.

 

Cor Docter's Koude vrouw in Kralingen (Cold Woman in Kralingen, 1970)

 

A topographical roman policier, situated in a neighborhood of Rotterdam, where the stabbing of a gardener, inspecting his greenhouses during a surging storm, leads Commissioner Vissering to a shadowy society known as Kostbaar Kralingen (Precious Kralingen). During one of their weekly gatherings, one of them dies under breathtaking circumstances in a sealed bedroom. The solution shows Docter was also pulp writer, but this is still one of the better Dutch-language locked room mystery I have read to date.

 

A full review can be read here.

 

Robert van Gulik's Fantoom in Foe-lai (translated as The Chinese Gold Murder, 1959)

 

Chronologically, this is the first book in the series and tells the story of Judge Dee's first post as magistrate of the district of Peng-lai, where the somber skies and mournful atmosphere makes for a perfect backdrop for tales of the dead who refuse to slumber in their graves – one of them being Dee's predecessor who died under mysterious circumstances in his locked library. OK, this one just might be better than Cor Docter’s Koude vrouw in Kralingen.

 

Note: Names and place names are different in the Dutch editions, e.g. Judge Dee is called Rechter Tie.

 

Robert van Gulik's Het rode paviljoen (The Red Pavilion, 1961)

 

I have to quote Patrick, from the excellent blog "At the Scene of the Crime," who reviewed this book on the JDCarr forum in a one-man book-club topic, because it's been too long since I have read this book:

 

"The solution is highly satisfying, and a bit more fair, I find, than that in The Chinese Gold Murders. The locked-room situation is just one part of a wonderfully elaborate plot, which taken as a whole is great. This wasn't much of a "ghost story", as I thought it would be at first. It's more of an old-sins-leave-long-shadows type of tale. Either way, Van Gulik is a very talented storyteller, and his immersive style is a pure delight to read as he revives Ancient China with words alone. An excellent read!"

 

Short stories:

 

Willy Corsari's "Sporen in de sneeuw" ("Tracks in the Snow," collected in De weddenschap van Inspector Lund, 1941; Inspector Lund Makes a Bet)

 

A broken leg and the story of an elderly woman of a long forgotten, unsolved and impossible, murder turns Lund into an armchair detective, but the solution was pedestrian and listless.

 

Robert van Gulik's "Moord en ambtelijke haarkloverij" ("The Red Tape Murder," collected in Zes zaken voor Rechter Tie, 1961; Judge Dee at Work)

 

Judge Dee investigates the murder of Commander Soo at a military fortress, shot with an arrow loosened from a room on the other side of the complex, and there was only one person who could've done it. Dee's solution turns this straight up murder investigation into a locked room mystery.

 

Havank's "De gegrendelde kamer" ("The Bolted Room," collected in De Schaduw & Co, 1957; The Shadow & Company)

 

I have not yet read this story, but according to the synopsis a man is shot dead inside a bolted room.

 

I will add more titles as I encounter them.

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