In Deep Peace (2022) by M.P.O. Books

M.P.O. Books is a Dutch detective and thriller author who debuted eighteen years with Bij verstek veroordeeld (Sentenced in Absentia, 2004), first of eight novels and one short story collection in the District Heuvelrug series, which started out as a regular series of modern-day politieromans (police novels) and thrillers – calling to mind the Midsomer Murders and A.C. Baantjer. After the third novel, Gedragen haat (Borne Hatred, 2006), Books parted ways with his publisher and would not return until four years later with De blikvanger (The Eye-Catcher, 2010). This marked the second-period of the series during which Books experimented with presenting classically-plotted detective stories as contemporary police thrillers. De laatste kans (The Last Chance, 2011) is a gem of a whodunit and Een afgesloten huis (A Sealed House, 2013) is possibly the first Dutch-language locked room mystery of note to have been published since Cor Docter's Koude vrouw in Kralingen (Cold Woman in Kralingen, 1970).

The series came to a close with Cruise Control (2014; no translation needed). Well, it kind of ended. Three years later, Books began a new series under a now open penname, "Anne van Doorn," featuring two particuliere onderzoekers (private investigators), Robbie Corbijn and Lowina de Jong, who specialize in cold cases. Corbijn and De Jong debuted in a short story, "De dichter die zichzelf opsloot" ("The Poet Who Locked Himself In," 2017), which was followed by three novels and numerous shorter works bundled in four short story collections. This series covers everything from impossible crimes and dying messages to throwbacks to the Doylean crime story and thrillers. It took me a while to cotton on that the Corbijn & De Jong series take place in the same continuity as the District Heuvelrug novels. And when I say cottoning on, I mean De man die zijn gewetten ontlastte (The Man Who Relieved His Conscience, 2019) had to rub that fact in my face because I can be a dense imbecile at times.

Last year, a collection of short stories appeared, Meer mysteries voor Robbie Corbijn (More Mysteries for Robbie Corbijn, 2021), but mostly things were quiet on the Books/Van Doorn front – until very recently. E-Pulp is going to publish two new series written by Books/Van Doorn in 2022.

Van Doorn's Het Delfts blauw mysterie (The Delft Blue Mystery, 2022) is the first entry in the New York Cops series in which two NYPD detectives, Krell and Hopper, investigate the mysterious death of a blind and wheelchair-bound woman, Philippa DeRoos. She was found dead under suspicious circumstances in her locked bedroom of her closely-guarded penthouse and the only clue appears to be the smashed fragments of an antique and valuable Delft blue bowl. I can't wait to see Van Doorn go full S.S. van Dine! The other series is not necessarily new, but rather another continuation of District Heuvelrug and picks up a year after Cruise Control ended. 

In diepe rust (In Deep Peace, 2022) is the first (short) novel starring a policewoman from Amersfoort, Gisella Markus, who first appeared in Cruise Control. Now she has her own series. Markus very much belongs to the category of troubled cops and her problems, private and professionally, casts a dark shadow over the story and plot. Gisella Markus marriage has gone into tailspin ever since her husband had a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, which embittered him and put a strain on their relationship and a drain on their finances. So now they're behind with the mortgage payments on their dream house. Markus also has an uneasy relationship with her nagging relatives nor is she particular popular at work "as she is used to prodding others and putting them to work." Only colleague who was on her side fell prey to the serial killer they were hunting down in Cruise Control.

Markus has enough on her plate already when duty calls and is summoned one early morning to Heiderust, a cemetery, where a grave had been desecrated during the night and the perpetrators "took the coffin with body and all" – which had been buried only two weeks ago. The body that was snatched belonged to a bodybuilder, construction worker and ex-convict, Henk Lafeber, who had died in a car accident. His widow points to a colleague of her husband, Jan Reijerman, who has been pestering her about a brown little box with a golden crown stamped on the lid. However, she has no idea what's inside the box or why Reijerman wants it. This trail leads to a shady contractor, Wilfred Gramser, who lately employs a lot of ex-jailbirds. So more than enough to go on, but pretty soon the higher ups want to squash the case after someone confesses to the crime with the promise to financially compensate the widow and cemetery. Markus doesn't believe the confession and continues her investigation, which threatens to place her career in serious jeopardy. A second plot-thread is woven through the body snatching case and concerns a mink farmer whose farmhouse is constantly attacked by a group of militant animal rights activists. 

In Deep Peace definitely reads like a return to the District Heuvelrug series as the story reads like a contemporary, character-driven police thriller with a troubled cop who blurs the line between the personal and the professional. Not that weird as the fore-and after words explained the manuscript was finished in 2006, but a spell of bad luck condemned it to drawer until E-Pulp decided to give the series a shot. At the time, Books had already began to take a serious look at the rich history of the genre as a foundation stone for his future novels like 2010s The Eye-Catcher. It was already present here. So, while In Deep Peace has the exterior of a modern-day police thriller, the reader gets enough clues and hints to eventually figure out who's involved, why and what exactly is happening. Storywise, the ending also sets up enough future conflict and trouble on the work floor to make me suspect Gisella Markus is eventually going to join Recherchebureau Corbijn – Research & Discover or go into business for herself with Lowina de Jong as her partner.

I suspect In Deep Peace is a little too contemporary and character-driven to excite the majority of classicists who read this blog, but the Dutch crime-and detective genre would have been poorer without either M.P.O. Books or E-Pulp. They're the only ones in my country who acknowledge the genre has a storied history and built on it to create richer crime and detective stories with room for characters, storytelling, plots and even a trope or two. There are not many, if any, Dutch publishers that would publish a classically-styled locked room mystery or whodunit unless it was a bestseller (i.e. flavor of the month) abroad. So look forward where the series goes with the second novel, De stille service (The Silent Service, 2023), but, admittedly, not as much as I do to The Delft Blue Mystery.