DEKOK AND THE BROTHERS OF THE EASY DEATH

An apparent husband-and-wife suicide—they are fished out of an Amsterdam canal with their fingers tightly linked—marks the beginning of another strange case for Inspector DeKok (Murder in Amsterdam, 1993, etc.). The Shoebeeks had just returned from their vacation in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and another pair of drowning victims turns out to have a last-minute tie there as well: Richard Vankerk, found clutching the dead hand of a prostitute called Blond Tina, had phoned Cortina d'Ampezzo the day he died. DeKok and his sidekick, Dick Vledder, are convinced they're onto the secret behind the drownings, especially when it turns out that the person Vankerk was phoning was his wife, Monique, who was sharing a vacation apartment with Brother Rigobertus, leader of the Community of the Brothers and Sisters of the Holy Blessings. One blessing the Community doesn't seem to be reaping is long life: Vankerk and the Shoebeeks were all members, and it seems likely that somebody inside is killing off Brother Rigobertus's top advisors. Whoever it is, though, it isn't Rigobertus, as DeKok realizes when he and Mrs. Vankerk become the killer's latest victims. The usual Baantjer course of no-frills detection, with breathless plotting substituting for psychological complexity and detective finesse—though DeKok, who spends most of this story making one accusation after another, like Perry Mason at his most belligerent, does have a nice moment when he replies to a higher-up's rebuke for insubordination to a superior: ``I know no superiors.''