Dutch Pioneers of Crime Writing

Author(s): J. Madison Davis

Source: World Literature Today , May - Aug., 2005, Vol. 79, No. 2 (May - Aug., 2005),
pp. 53-54
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40158677

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 INTERNATIONAL CRIME & MYSTERY

Dutch Pioneen of Crime Writing

J. MADISON DAVIS

taRiFtffl
At age forty-eight, Chris Rippen, a university lecturer, pub-
lished his first novel, Sporen (1988; Tracks), and was soon rec-
ognized as one of the leading crime writers of Holland. His
second novel, Playback, won the Golden Noose award for
best Dutch-language crime novel of 1992. Met de grond gelijk
"5
(1993) and Baltische Connecties (1999) fol-
lowed, as well as a literary novel Een enkel
<

woord (2002) and two collections of short

stories. His works have appeared in Ger-
Cover of Robert Hans van Cover of Hans van der man, but several of his stories have been
Gulik's The Monkey and the Kallen's Spaanse pepers more widely translated.
Tiger ^965; reprint, 2005) (1954)
"My choice for writing crime fiction
has nothing to do with a fascination for
Crime writing in the Netherlands developed slowly as a Chris Rippen
crime. I haven't any. Crime fiction is just a
force in literature, but by the turn of the twenty-first
form.century
I have a fascination for characters.
was flourishing. For most readers outside the Netherlands,
Crime fiction enables me to let my characters cross a border-
the Dutch mystery novel begins with Robert Hans van
line. In finding and inquiring about facts and motives, they
Gulik (1910-67). Living in Java, his interest in Asian
revealculture
themselves."
led him to translate the Dee Goong An, an eighteenth-century
crime novel featuring Judge Dee, a Chinese magistrate who
lived around 700 a.d. Van Gulik then went on to write a still
popular series of novels using Judge Dee as a mainOuriesdhTex
character.
Janwillem Van der Wetering (b. 1931) is also Born in Australia in 1952, Charles den
interna-
tionally well known. Coincidentally, he is also Tex works in corporate consulting and
influenced
usesin
heavily by Asian traditions because of his interest hisBud-
knowledge of the business world
to create
dhism. However, his main characters are Amsterdam police- such award-winning thrillers as
Dump (1995),
men Detective- Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier. Crit- Claim (1996), Code 39 (1998),
DealSimenon
ic John Leonard described Wetering as Georges (1999), Schijn van kans (2002), and
with his mind sublet to Albert Camus. Stegger (2003). Avoiding tales of super- Charles den Tex
As crime writers, the first great successes among the heroes who take ten bullets and still van-
Dutch were Ivans (Jacob van Schevichaven, 1866-1935), whoquish evil, Tex finds his heroes among ordinary people in the
borrowed the Holmes/Watson formula beginning in 1917 middle class.

and published forty-eight novels, and Havank (Hans van "The core of the thriller has remained always the
same: a tale concerning good and evil, young and old,
der Kallen, 1904-64) who wrote thirty novels. Havank creat-
ed a detective nicknamed "the Shadow." One of the most beautiful and ugly, courage and cowardice, pride and
honor, growth and luck. What is central in earlier centuries
popular crime writers in Holland is A. C. Baantjer (b. 1923),
and in the modern thriller has changed little. The name
who served in law enforcement for thirty-eight years and
thriller is much more recent than the whodunit and the
wrote the Inspector DeKok ("De Cock" in Dutch) mysteries,
which became a popular television series. Several ofwhydunit.
his But the moralistic ingredients are still the same
many novels have been translated. and the game never grows tiresome."

WORLD LITERATURE TODAY • MAY-AUGUST 2005 • 53

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 current events and recognizable politicians. Zij droeg die nacht
towHwRT een paars corset (1967; That night they carried a purple corset),
The most recent major phenomenon for example, features the marriage of Princess Beatrix in
of Dutch thriller writing is Saskia 1966. Recently, he has worked jointly with nine other emi-
Noort (b. 1967), a journalist who pub- nent authors, each writing a chapter to create the novel De
lished her first novel, Terug naar de kust dood van een kroonprins (2002; Death of a crown prince).
(To the coast), in 2003. Selling more
Saskia Noort
than thirty-five thousand copies, an
astonishing number for a country of OlMMHT
only 16 million inhabitants, she shares the best-seller lists The general tendency of contemporary Dutch crime fiction
with American Dan Brown. With a female protagonist, the seems to be more toward realism and less toward fantasy.
novel fits into what is usually called a "woman in jeopardy"The psychological realism and the close integration of plots
with distinctly Dutch characters, politics, and society per-
novel in the United States. Her second page-turner, De eetclub
(2004; The dining club), set among the "nouveau riche," is
haps explain why so many of the best Dutch writers remain
also a major success. Both books were nominated for the untranslated and unfamiliar to readers outside of Holland.
Golden Noose for best novel.

Other Nohne Crime Writers of the Netherluk

Dutch-Language Crime-Writing Websites
www.crime.nl Genootschap van Nederlandstalige Misdaad-
auteurs (the Dutch crime writers association)
www.crimezone.nl/news.php Crimezone Magazine, for thriller-
lovers
www.detectivesociety.com Website of the Detective Society (in
Dutch)

Rene Appel Rinus Ferdinandusse

Translations

Tomas Ross is called a "faction" writer because of his inte- Not many Dutch crime and thriller writers have been translate
into English. A few who are:
gration of realistic situations from current Dutch politics -A.
orC. Baantjer, DeKok and the Geese of Death (Speck, 2004), plus se
any area of society that grabs his interest - into his plots. eral others by Intercontinental Publishing.
Among the most honored of Dutch writers, he founded the Robert Hans van Gulik, The Chinese Lake Murders (A Judge De
crime writers association and won the best-novel award Mystery) (Perennial, 2005).
three times. Chris Rippen, "Ferry Noir," in Murder on Deck! Shipboard an
Shoreline Mystery Stories, ed. Rosemary Herbert, tr. Emmy
Rene Appel, two-time winner of the Dutch thriller Muller (Oxford University Press, 1998).
award, is recognized as the best Dutch author of psycholog-
Chris Rippen, "Barefoot/' in World's Finest Mystery and Crime St
ical thrillers. An expert teacher of Dutch as a second lan-
ries, ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg (Forge, 2003).
guage, Appel is very much influenced by the works of Chris
Patri- Rippen, "Under My Skin/' in Death Cruise, ed. Lawrenc
Block (Cumberland House, 1999).
cia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell. Traditional murder
Janwillem Van de Wetering, Amsterdam Cops: Collected Storie
mysteries usually place the crime at the outset, but Appel(Soho
is Crime, 2001).
more interested in the way an ordinary person can be
University of Oklahoma
brought to murder. "The question," he has said, "is not
whodunit, but who will do it and how and when?"
J. Madison Davis is the author of several crime novels and seve
Rinus Ferdinandusse (b. 1931) has been called the god-
al nonfiction books, including the forthcoming Van Gogh Conspir
father of Dutch crime fiction because his writings, beginning
acy. A former president of the North American branch of t
in the late 1960s, marked the upsurge of crime writing. He
International Association of Crime Writers, he teaches novel an
created a Chandleresque freelance journalist, Rutger Maria
filmscript writing in the Professional Writing Program of the Gay
Lemming, for his hero in six thrillers. "It was a satirical
lord College of Journalism & Mass Communication at the Univer
time," Ferdinandusse remarks, and the books often included
sity of Oklahoma.

54 • WORLD LITERATURE TODAY • MAY-AUGUST 2005

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