This week: The Rest of the World.
Police work, and police officers, are universal. Every
country has some form of law enforcement.
There are sub-genres of mystery that are particularly
identified with specific countries. The hard-boiled private
eye story, characterS like Dick Francis's Sid Halley
notwithstanding, is largely an AMerican art form. The
"classic puzzler" or "cozy" seems decidely British, despite
the efforts of writers like Ellery Queen or S.S. Van
Dine.
But, since police work is universal, attempts to
realistically portray police work are similarly universal.
Writers ranging from Sweden's Sjowall/Wahloo combo to China's
Qiu Xialong, from Russia's Julian Semyenov to Japan's Seichu
Matsumoto, have all tried their hand at authentically
depicting their nations' police service in fiction.
This week I'll be looking at a few cop-writers from other
parts of the world. First up: Albert Cornelis Baantjer of the
Netherlands.
Baantjer spent more than 25 years as a homicide detective in
the Amsterdam police. After retiring, he began a long series
of novels featuring a Maigret-like Amsterdam cop named
DeCock. There are now over 50 books in the series, which
began appearing in the early '60s. about 30 or 40 of them
have been translated and published in the US. Oddly, in the
American editions the character's name is spelled
"DeKok," apparently because of the sexual connotation in the
word "cock."
Reportedly, Baantjer based the character on a colleague named
LeCoq, although this sounds suspicious since Lecoq is the
name of the famous French policeman created in a series of
19th century novels by Emile Gaboriou. What's seems more
likely is that Baantjer may have been tipping his hat to
Gaboriou, the first successful European mystery writer, and,
according to some sources, the first writer to extend
detective fiction from the short story to the novel.
Baantjer (that single name appears as the by-line at least on
the US editions) is something of a publishing phenom in
Europe. He's the single most successful writer in the
Netherlands. Each new DeCock novel regularly hits the Dutch
best-seller list, then repeats the feat in other European
countries. There is an extraordinarily popular DeCOCK TV
series shown in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, and a
DeCock board game is currently one of the highest-selling
toys in Europe. Baantjer's almost an industry.
I've enjoyed the Baantjer books I've read, though at times
the translations have seemd a bit awkward. THe atmosphere,
and sense of place have been strong selling points for me,
and I like the lead character, a man in late middle age who's
seen it all, and still has managed to hold on to his
humanity. There's not a lot of overt violence, and, while
DeCock (or DeKok, since I've only read the American editions)
and his partner, Vledder, are pretty tough cookies, it's
difficult to say how "colloquial" they are since I'm reading
translations. Which a roundabout way of saying that I don't
know how hard-boiled most of you would regard them.
But if you like a well-presented European atmosphere and a
convincing picture of police work in another country, I'd
recommend Baantjer.
JIM DOHERTY
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