ISBN: 0-7887-2025-2 Order from: Recorded Books
A beautifully quirky mystery of an old Dutch detective and his assistant full of small-town Maine atmosphere, mild satire, and deft observation.
Reviewed by David on March 17, 2002
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis: This is an unabridged recording of The Maine Massacre. The Commissaris, the aged head of Amsterdam Police's Murder Brigade, takes a few personal days to help his recently widowed sister, now living in Jamestown, Maine, sell her house and return to Holland.
Concerned about the Commissaris's health, his friends in the police force sent along Sergeant De Gier.
The Commissaris discovers that prior to his brother-in-laws death, several fatal accidents happened to the home owners in the same neighborhood. The town sheriff, young and understaffed, welcomes the advice and assistance of the two visiting detectives in investigating the series of suspicious deaths.
Full Review: The Commissaris provides an interesting mechanism for investigation. His unfamiliarity with America allows the author to show quirks of the country with a degree of combined amusement and admiration. The old detective's seeming naïvete and almost childhood glee provide an excellent observation vehicle, smoothly integrated with the Commissaris's impressive wisdom and knowledge of human nature.
In fact, the tone of this series manages to combine the cynical knowledge of human vice with an impressively non-judgemental decency, perhaps a peculiarly Dutch approach.
The mystery itself is carried by a cast of colorful characters with a colorful setting of remote Jamestown, and proves interesting both in ovestigation and the conclusion.
This pleasant book is entertaining, humorous, with occasional glints of thoughtful reflection.
Overall: 6; Plot: 6; Characters: 6; Style: 6; World-building: 6; Originality: 6;
Copyright date 1979, Recorded Books, 1998, Audio cassette, 6 cassettes
ISBN: 0-7887-2025-2 Order from: Recorded Books