Sunday, August 21, 2011

Crime Fiction on a Europass: Holland/Belgium

Leaving France, our next stop on our Crime Fiction Europass vacation get-away is Holland and/or Belgium. And, oh, am I so full of myself. I found the perfect book. Dekok and Murder on Blood Mountain written by one of the most widely read authors in the Netherlands, A C Baantjer. And, here's the kicker, this novel sends his Dutch Inspector to Blood Mountain in....you guessed it...Belgium! I haven't read this one yet...but then I don't think I've read any mysteries written by an author from either Belgium or Holland. I guarantee you, though, that after researching for the Europass post I'm going to be taking care of that little deficiency tout de suite. I am especially entranced by the descriptions of A C Baantjer's series.

Here is the synopsis for
Dekok and Murder on Blood Mountain:

In Inspector DeKok's line of work, death is commonplace. But encountering figures from the dead certainly is not. At the request of the Belgium police, Inspectors DeKok and Vledder attend the funeral of a murder victim. The body was fished out of Antwerp's Scheldt River, but brought back to Amsterdam to be laid to rest in Sorrow Field Cemetery. During the service DeKok spies the face of a man l
ong known to be dead. Whispers of the gray sleuth's sanity are uttered but DeKok is certain of a darker, more sinister activity at play than just the ridiculous notion of ghosts. Further bodies are discovered; apparently they too were poisoned and dumped into the river. DeKok is forced to venture from his beloved city and travel to Bloedberg ("Blood Mountain"), a notorious neighborhood in Antwerp. It seems a certain Heaven's Gate Temple and the Holy Pact for the Dying hold the answers to both the living dead and the dead and buried. - (Blackwell North Amer)


4 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Isn't that a fun challenge to take on? Next summer, I think I will take a book-cation. It will certainly save a lot of money!

Bev Hankins said...

Yes, it has been fun. And it helps me discover new books and authors (not that I really need more books for the TBR pile....).

Kerrie said...

Thanks for this contribution Bev. I found a Baantjer for my Kindle too

J F Norris said...

I found this one, too! I almost wrote it up, but I 'm saving it for a different mini blog tribute to A.J. Baantjer on August 29. I'll be reviewing it along with Dekok and Murder in Seance and Dekok and the Sorrowing Tomcat. My Europass Netherlands post is coming later tonight.