The Streetbird

by Janwillem Van de Wetering

Hardcover, 1983

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Putnam Adult (1983), Hardcover, 286 pages

Description

A Grijpstra & De Gier Mystery Sergeant de Gier sees a vulture at the scene of a murder in Amsterdam's red light district. The victim was a despicable pimp but is now only a police matter to be disposed of with typical Dutch tidiness. However, once Grijpstra, de Gier and the canny commisaris get involved, their search leads to a denouement infinitely more shocking than the crime itself. ...is his most satisfying book so far.' - Chicago Tribune'

User reviews

LibraryThing member iayork

A pretty good read: The book blended interesting strands of South American voodoo and Amsterdman red-light district life. I liked the book, but did not find the end convincing. I could not believe the police would accept the "shocking truth". Still, I liked the book's atmosphere. A sort of Dutch,

latter-day film noir.

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LibraryThing member aulsmith

Deep into this series about the Amsterdam cops we learn some interesting things about Gripstra's private life and about the Commissar. Some interesting Afro-Caribbean magic and a complex mystery make for an interesting read.

LibraryThing member Bookish59

A funny, sad and exciting mystery with twists and turns that keeps the reader reading. I enjoyed this book because it is very good with lots of great characters, and because it isn't afraid to touch on the subjects of racism and sexism in Amsterdam.

LibraryThing member devenish

As anyone who has tried this series before will know,these are far from straightforward crime stories. The author is an exponent of Zen,and it shows.'The Amsterdam Cops' to use the most usual series name features Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier. My own favourite character in this and in

many of the other books is the Commissaris or chief of detectives.
The crime here is the shooting of a top drug dealer who also runs a number of prostitutes.
Although far from his best,this one contains some thought-provoking moments.

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LibraryThing member stuart10er

A very quirky mystery where a Surinamer pimp lord in the red light district is found shot. The murder brigade is brought in and they do eventually solve the case but perhaps without seeing justice done. I wonder what this says about the author and his idea of justice and crime. Still very enjoyable

with interesting characters.

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LibraryThing member LolaWalser

Too much obtuse sexism even for Wetering. Black pimp with voodoo charms forces a "respected" independent white whore to give him a blow job in public, after which she hangs herself. This incident is constantly referred to by policemen (all men of course) with more envy and awe than disgust. Imagine

that, a woman who previously decided for herself if she'd "let a man enter her" (exact quote). At the umpteenth mention, a black sociologist discusses it in terms of white reticence toward oral sex and white unease with sex in general! No one objects that fucking Jesus on a stick, that wasn't sex, that was a manipulative show of domination and humiliation.

To crown it all, the one female cop, adjutant Adele, is objectified like meat by her colleagues and constantly leered at (they also call her an asshole when she doesn't submit fast enough to doing chores for them). But just when you might think Wetering may be teaching the men a lesson here, it turns out she too was about to fall victim to the black pimp's magnetic charm and follow in the footsteps (knee-steps) of the hanged whore. Adjutant Adele can't help herself, she "likes black" as she says, so apparently she too was totally doomed to giving the pimp a public blow job. So Adele's male colleague(s) took it on themselves to sort the matter out. Someone's gotta help those helpless (white) women, even as trained cops they are rubbish when confronted with the magic of a (black) dick.

Look, a dose of "magical" mumbo jumbo is what makes Wetering's "mysteries" so appealing in the first place. But this one is a catastrophic mess. Shame.

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LibraryThing member ritaer

a black pimp is killed in Amsterdam with suggestion of black magic. Crime committed by a local policeman to protect female officer from pimp's hypnotic power

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