Okay, (that’s “k-o-k”, Dekok) I just read a Baantjer mystery featuring Inspector Dekok, Murder by Installment (published in 2007).  Now I can compare the two giants of Dutch mysteries, A.C. Baantjer and Janwillem van de Wetering.

I really enjoy the Baantjer series involving the cranky, persistent, and intelligent Dekok, and he is wildly popular in Holland.  This book was similar to the others in the series with its twists and false conclusions, and with its characters from high and low Dutch society.  As usual, Dekok finds out the truth and metes out justice as he sees fit; he shames the chief of the Warmoes station (a blundering bully), nails the perp, and lets an associated guilty party go free (after all the victims were scum and the woman has a future of helping others –really).

Dekok has a soft spot for soft criminals, misled ladies, and for cognac and croquettes.  The charm of these books is found in the hero, the recurring supporting cast,  and in the quality of the police procedural: we enjoy following the case, with its dips and high points and the occasional pain in the feet that signifies Dekok is having trouble.

Van de Wetering’s mysteries follows a different course, with the “who did it” less important that the “why” and the overarching question of what does it all matter? It matters because justice prevails, even if the course of justice takes generations and even if lives must be paid for the justice to finds its way.

There is more humor in Baantjer (and more entertainment) and more angst in de Wetering (and more provocation of deep thinking).  So take your pick, some mind bending (Baantjer) or some mind altering (de Wetering): both are good reads.

Question:  why are there no great detective series from Belgium? Hercule Poirot is Belgian (always mistaken for French) but he is of course from the mind of the great English writer Agatha Christie.  Antwerp is a perfect setting for murder and mayhem and mixed motives.  Unlike Holland, where everything goes but under strict laws governing the freedom of everything from drugs to prostitutes, in Belgium the illicit is indeed lawless; it is ungoverned,  under the table, and anarchic.  Doesn’t that make for great and engaging crime, the kind of crime that makes a good mystery?  So we need a Belgian to step up to the plate, write a mystery set in Ghent or Antwerp or on the shore, sophisticated Knokke or more earthy Nieuwpoort.  Let me know!  If no one offers, maybe that will be my next project, after my year of reading 365 books.