Into the Stacks - Outsider in Amsterdam by JanWillem Van de Wetering

Outsider in Amsterdam
By JanWillem Van de Wetering
Published 1975
Reissued by Soho Press 2003

Go retro
Flashback to Amsterdam in the late 1970's with book one in the Grijpstra & de Gier Mystery Series.

Detective Adjutant Henk Grijpstra and Sergeant Rinus de Gier are reluctant to step out of their police issued VW Bug into the rain. Neither of them wants to knock on the door of number 5, the gable house on Haarlemmer Houttuinen, the house with the body in it.

Piet Verboom was found hung on the top floor of number 5, a Hindist Society, and Gripstra and de Gier have been called in to investigate his suspected suicide. The Hindist society is a commune with a small bar, restaurant, and gift shop selling incense and gilt Buddha statues. Piet the spiritual leader of Hindist Society is definitely the one hanging from the beam and he is certainly dead, but the odd bump on his head raises a lot of questions.

The oddly matched partners, Grijpstra and de Gier, make for a wonderfully quirky investigative team. Rinus de Gier is always willing to sacrifice himself in the line of duty especially when there are ladies involved. He also has no problem going the distance, when called upon, to out drink any suspect as long as he can get home in time to feed his cat Oliver. The long suffering Henk Grijpstra will follow a lead to the ends of the earth as long as he can get away from his wife. An interesting series that reveals Amsterdam in the 1970's...sex, drugs, and death.

JanWillem Van De Wetering's Grijpstra & de Gier series bibliography