"We meet people on the worst day of their lives."- Gil Grissom (CSI)
M.P.O. Books' Cruise Control (2014)
is the eighth in a series of police procedurals, blending the characterization
of the contemporary crime-and thriller novels with the plot-awareness of a
classic whodunit, which began with the publication of Bij verstek
veroordeeld (Sentenced in Absentia, 2004). And that was than a
decade ago.
District Heuvelrug series has evolved
quite a lot over that time period. The first couple of books had Bram Petersen,
a veteran police inspector, and his younger assistant, Ronald Bloem, as the
main protagonists, but Bloem transferred to another district in De laatse kans (The Last Chance, 2011) due to personal issues and Petersen
resided into the background after his wife suffered a stroke in De dood van Callista de Vries (The Death of Callista de Vries, 2012) – giving
room for other characters to shine and develop.
There was a hiatus of four years between
the publications of Gedragen haat (Hatred Borne, 2006) and De
blikvanger (The Eye-Catcher, 2010), during which Books was shopping
around for a new publisher and (obviously) improving his craft. The plots from
2010 onwards are delightfully complex, interlaced with clues, and graciously
unraveled by a team of professional police men-and women in the spirit of Ed McBain 87th Precinct series. The Eye-Catcher and Een afgesloten huis
(A Sealed House, 2013) were sporting impossible crimes, but The Last
Chance, even without a locked room mystery, remains a personal favorite –
which says something about the quality of the story and plot!
Cruise Control can be characterized as a third shift in direction for the series
and this might explain one of two things: the length of the story, almost twice as long as normal, and why the
opening chapters felt as an introduction to a completely new series.
Gisella Markus is introduced to the
reader as a police woman in her early forties, who found herself, surprisingly,
ascending to the rank of Chief-Inspector, with an invalid, embittered and
nagging husband at home – who insists on being a drag on her life. Niels Hanse
is the one who usually assists Markus on cases and a column of support for her to
lean against, but their present assignment impacts Hanse, who's gay, personally.
The body of a half naked man was found in
the vicinity of a recreational area, De Treekerpunt, known as a rendezvous spot
for cruising gays and was shot, execution style, between the eyes. Hanse is
sure the shooting was the work of someone with a grudge against homosexuals,
but Markus thinks the murderer could very well have been one of the cruising
men. After all, Felix van Leeuwen dealt in narcotics and had caused trouble
before. Van Leeuwen's behavior gave even the forest ranger a motive and this
provided the first leads for the assembled task force to sift through, which
includes Inge Veenstra from District Heuvelrug and her former colleage, Ronald
Bloem.
A vile-worded bloedtekst (blood
text), written in chicken blood, fuels Hanse's theory, but colliding opinion and
personal circumstances continue to bug the investigation. Than, exactly six
weeks later, the shooter strikes again and, before long, another blood text is
found: "IK PROBEER EEN PROBLEEM OP TE LOSSEN” (“I'M TRYING TO SOLVE A
PROBLEM"). The team recognizes this as a possible indicator that they might
be dealing with a serial killer, who's warming up, and they receive more
manpower. Actually, A Sealed House ended with John van Keeken, who
replaced Bloem, hearing the news of the second murder and was to go there to
strengthen the team.
Eventually, they even drag Bram Petersen
from special leave to give his opinion on the case, but mounting media
attention and internal division plague the investigation relentlessly. There's
an anonymous "whistleblower" that accuses the conservative-minded, but always
respectable, Petersen of homophobia, while the murderer delivers a personal
blow to the investigators in the next hail of bullets. As well as blowing my
already fragmented theories to a thousand tiny little pieces.
 |
| M.P.O. Books with Een afgesloten huis (A Sealed House, 2013) |
I found it interesting how Books rendered
an otherwise well-oiled and experienced team of professional police
investigators useless by pouring gallons of raw emotions into the machine,
which made me overlook a majority of the clues and the identity of the
well-hidden murderer caught me by surprise. I openly admit that. But I loved
how Petersen functioned from the sideline, as an old-fashioned armchair
detective, connecting the dots based on footprints, gun knowledge and Jack the
Ripper-lore to reveal the killer.
However, the ending clearly shows Books
has one foot as firmly planted in the modern school of crime fiction as in the
one honoring the traditional art of murder, because, character-wise, his novels
have the penchant to end on a dark note. I even felt sympathy for Bloem and I
was glad when Van Keeken took his place, but now I would welcome him back into
the fold out of sheer pity. Poor guy.
Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of our
homegrown, neo-orthodox crime/mystery author and his methods has its desired
effect: I'm very curious about the aftermath of Cruise Control, but I
have a suspicion the answer won't be given in the next book. I suspect that the
following book will be about the, briefly mentioned, investigation of the
kidnapped-and murdered shop owner in Utrecht that Bloem was a part of and
probably involved Inspector Arthur van der Camp – which would explain Bloem's
behavior in this story. Well, hopefully, the shop owner was conscientious
enough to have allowed himself to be snuffed out under impossible circumstances
inside a sealed or guarded room.
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