'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves 'Just take a look,' Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all round them, the picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife . . . 'Everyone here earns his living. Everyone's more or less content. And above all, everyone keeps his instincts under control, because that's the rule here, and a necessity if people want to live in society.' When a French professor visiting the quiet, Dutch coastal town of Delfzjil is accused of murder, Maigret is sent to investigate. The community seem happy to blame an unknown outsider, but there are people much closer to home who seem to know much more than they're letting on: Beetje, the dissatisfied daughter of a local farmer, Any van Elst, sister-in-law of the deceased and a notorious local crook. This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret in Holland. 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent
Crime is men’s business, isn’t it? Women are responsible for 10 percent of crime in Europe. Yet, if we look at the Dutch Republic in the early modern period, we find that in the towns of Holland women played a much larger role in crime. In a number of early modern towns about half of the criminals convicted in court were women. These women were in vulnerable positions and thus more likely to become involved in crime. They also had a relatively independent status and led remarkably public lives. Manon van der Heijden convincingly shows that it is the very combination of women’s vulnerability and independence that accounts for the high female crime rates in Holland between 1600 and 1800.
THE SEALED TRUTH is based on a heinous crime that occurred in Rhode Island in 1975 when five-year-old freckle faced Justin Doherty (real names and places have been changed) was kidnapped and murdered. After a week long search by Hopeville police and volunteers, Justin’s mother Jane and Detective Rick Thurston began a gut-wrenching, futile crusade to find Justin. In 1982, Norman Stedman, a twenty-three-year old loner and neighbor, was arrested when he tried to strangle the local paperboy, and while interrogated, confessed that he had killed Justin. During the search of Norman’s house, the police found Justin’s skull and bones and a journal that described in grim detail what he had done to the dead boy’s body. In a plea bargain, the trail judge sealed the journal. This action caused a series of despicable rumors that exist to this very day about what Norman actually wrote in his journal. Gary Thomas, a retired school principal, sought answers to a series of questions raised by the crime. What caused the killer, a capable student and considered harmless, to go over the edge and kill an innocent child? What exactly was written in the sealed journal? What long term effect has this brutal crime had on its victims? Update The names of the real killer and victims were changed in the book to protect their privacy, however, after book was completed ,the Rhode Island Departement of Corrections publicly announced intended early release of the actual child killer, Michael Woodmansee, in the summer of 2011. The surprise announcement became a national story that ignited passions and generated new fear as people remembered rumors of cannibalism and other alledged horrible things surrounding the gruesome murder of five-year-old Jason Foreman in Peace Dale, Rhode Island in 1975. The father of the murdered boy publicly stated on national television that he would kill the boy when and if Woodmansee is released. Organized protests have occurred and legislation filed to change a“good time” early release law that allowed a child killer like Woodmansee to serve only 28 years of his 40 year sentence. Because any new law will not be retroactive, state officials are looking instead at civil institutional commitment for Woodmansee, something that will only occur if two independent psychiatrists find him a danger to himself and to the community. Meanvhile, the public remains outraged to think that Woodmansee will be free in the near future to walk their streets again.
Willem Holleeder is one of the most notorious criminals in contemporary history. Best known for his involvement in the 1983 kidnapping of Alfred Heineken, CEO and Chairman of Heineken, and his infamous 2006 trial in which he was convicted of extortion, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization, Willem Holleeder captured the attention of the world. What few knew was how Willem had terrorized, extorted and threatened his family for thirty years, just as his alcoholic father - an employee at Heineken - had dominated and mistreated the family for years. Children, sisters, women, in-laws and mother: no one escaped the despotic behaviour of father and son. But Willem's latest conviction is quickly becoming the trial of the century. Charged for his involvement in multiple assassinations, including that of his former partner and brother-in-law, Willem is finally being put on trial for murder, all due to the shocking and incriminating testimony of his own family. Having spent years as his unwilling consigliere, Willem's own sister Astrid is finally breaking her silence and going on the record. In this stunning memoir, Astrid finally reveals decades of familial manipulation and fear and her own thrilling experience working as a double cross, preserving enough trust to attain the information that would convict her brother for life.
Is Carl Andersen innocent of murder, or a very good liar? Detective Chief Inspector Maigret has been interrogating the enigmatic Danish aristocrat for seventeen hours. A diamond merchant was found dead, shot at point-blank range, in the garage of Andersen’s mansion, yet he will not confess to the crime. To get to the truth, Maigret must delve into the secrets of Three Widows Crossroads, the isolated neighbourhood where he lives with his mysterious, reclusive sister Else – and where, it seems, everyone has something to hide.
A revelatory look at what happens when political Islam collides with the secular West Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.
A copycat killer stalks the streets of Philadelphia in the fifth crime thriller in the Byrne & Balzano series from “a master storyteller” (James Ellroy). Fall in Philadelphia. A man’s corpse is found in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. It’s unmistakably the work of a killer. But to homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano, it feels familiar. Eight years ago, another body was found in the same place, in the same position . . . killed in the same manner. Even the crime-scene photos are identical. That case was never closed. And now more copycat murders are happening. Someone is recreating the city’s most infamous unsolved killings, victim by victim—with more clues for Byrne and Balzano to unravel . . . Taut and suspenseful, The Echo Man is already an international bestseller. Discover what readers around the world already know: Richard Montanari’s novels are “relentlessly suspenseful” (Tess Gerritsen).
From Chicago historian Adam Selzer, expert on all of the Windy City’s quirks and oddities, comes a compelling heavily researched anthology of the stories behind its most fascinating unsolved mysteries. To create this unique volume, Selzer has collected forty unsolved mysteries from the 1800s to modern day. He has poured through all newspaper, magazine, and book references to them, and consulted expert historians. Topics covered include who really started the great Chicago fire, who was the first “automobile murderer,” and even if there was actually a vampire slaying at Rose Hill cemetery. The result is both a colorful read to get lost in, a window to a world of curiosity and wonder, as well as a volume that separates fact from fiction—true crime from urban legend. Complementing the gripping stories Selzer presents are original images of the crime and its suspects as developed by its original investigators. Readers will marvel at how each character and crime were presented, and happily journey with Selzer as he presents all facts and theories presented at the time of the “crime” and uses modern hindsight to assemble the pieces.
"[Van de Wetering] is doing what Simenon might have done if Albert Camus had sublet his skull." —John Leonard On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, a man is found hanging from the ceiling beam of his bedroom, upstairs from the new religious society he founded: a group that calls itself “Hindist” and supposedly mixes elements of various Eastern traditions. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances. This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.
