DEKOK AND THE SOMBER NUDE

Bestselling Dutch author Baantjer's first English translation is a 1967 novel that sets Amsterdam's Inspector DeKok and his sidekick Vledder the problem of what happened to Nanette Bogaard, a flower- arranger who disappeared after turning the heads of her morphine- addict cousin Frank Bogaard, journalist Barry Wieler, the Staatens—a wealthy art collector and his avid heir—and artist Pierre Popko, whose painting of Nanette nude on the late Mrs. Staaten's sofa seems to be at the heart of the case. Even before Nanette turns up dead and dismembered, Baantjer's laconic, rapid-fire storytelling—many scenes consist almost entirely of dialogue—has spun out a surprisingly complex web of mysteries. Fans of Sjîwall and Wahlîî's more dourly atmospheric Martin Beck series will be glad that Baantjer has 35 untranslated DeKok procedurals lined up behind this one.