Murder at the Open Air Museum (1954) by Ine van Etten

It's been awhile since I poked around the vague, difficult to pin down "classical period" of the Dutch detective story, which can be roughly placed between the late 1940s and early to mid '60s, but the detective story is not highly regarded in my country – especially homegrown detective fiction. They were dismissed by critics and rarely, if ever, reprinted or studied and written about. You can find biographical information on their authors and bibliography, or two, but that's pretty much it. So trying to find good, Dutch-language detective novels and obtaining copies can be like trying to find your way through a maze blindfolded. So it often comes down to pure guesswork and sheer luck.

I had some serendipitous finds over the years. Most notably, Ton Vervoort's Inspector Floris Jansen series with the Ellery Queen-inspired Moord onder astrologen (Murder Among Astrologists, 1963) and Moord onder de mantel der liefde (Murder Under the Mantle of Love, 1964) as the series high notes. I was also pleasantly surprised by De moord op het sloependek (The Murder on the Boat Deck, 1941) by the pseudonymous "Vanno," A.R. Brent's Voorzichtig behandelen (Handle with Care, 1948), C. Buddingh's Vrijwel op slag (Almost Instantly, 1953) and W.H. van Eemlandt's take on the British humdrum mystery, Kogels bij het dessert (Dessert with Bullets, 1954). Unfortunately, I stumbled across many more that were either disappointing or complete stinkers. These far from inspiring works include A. Rootheart's Onrust op Raubrakken (Unrest at Raubrakken, 1935) F. van Overvoorde's Moorden in Maastricht (Murders in Maastricht, 1937), Bob van Oyen's Na afloop moord (Afterwards, Murder, 1953), Martin Mons' Het huis met de poppen (The House with the Dolls, 1955), Dick A. van Ruler's Moord op een negatief (Murder of a Negative, 1963), B.J. Kleymens' In de greep van de kreeft (In the Grip of the Lobster, 1965) and K. Abma's De hond was executeur (The Dog Was Executor, 1973).

So blind picking one of these obscure, forever out-of-print Dutch detective novels is always a gamble, but it's been long enough to take another shot in the dark. Some of you actually enjoyed the reviews of these mostly forgotten Dutch mysteries. I had something on the big pile perfectly fitting the description of obscure, forever out-of-print detective novel.

G.B.M. van Etten-Sjoukes cut her teeth as an author on novels for older, teenage girls and young women, known today as Young Adult fiction, during the 1940s – decided to try her chances in a detective story competition organized by A.W. Bruna & Zoon. Van Etten submitted De moord in het openluchtmuseum (Murder at the Open Air Museum, 1954) and won the first prize, which got the book published (as by "Ine van Etten") in the "Boek van de Maand" series with a cover illustration by Dick Bruna. Murder at the Open Air Museum was then promptly forgotten, never reprinted and Van Etten's short-lived success wasn't quite the incentive needed to write a second detective novel. So you can see why the Dutch variation of the Anglo-American detective story never really got going, except for a few short-lived bursts or individual breakouts. And, to show this review can go both ways, Van Oyen's abysmal Murder, Afterwards won the third-place prize in the 1953 edition of the same competition that had 166 submissions. I've pre(r)ambled on long enough.

So is Van Etten's Murder at the Open Air Museum a long-lost masterpiece, another dud that completely missed the mark or simply an average, but competent, piece of detective fiction? Time to find out!

Murder at the Open Air Museum begins with a prologue in which two dozen soft, lilac envelopes are sent out all over the country, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rotterdam and Utrecht, carrying invitations for an overdue family reunion. An invitation for day in Arnhem beginning with meeting in a cafe, a visit to the open air museum and dinner at the sprawling country estate of Aunt Emilie Warner. Who could have known the family reunion would "create opportunities for murder, blackmail and more murder."

Since the cast of characters is not exactly a small, tightly-drawn circle of suspects, I won't go over the whole cast of characters. Just know that the family is represented in practically every layer of the social strata from a no-good blackmailer, struggling widow, overworked office worker and a poor artist to an art critic, a mayor and a filmstar – who flew over to visit his widowed sister. There are two salient points to this edition of the family reunion. Firstly, the previous reunion ended in a fight over the inheritance of the family patriarch, Great-uncle Karel, who was notoriously "stubborn, spiteful and very difficult to get along with." And very finicky when it came to his heirs. Great-uncle Karel had changed his will several times, but the last version made Aunt Emilie the primary beneficiary. Secondly, the person who had been whispering in his ear to blacken his cousins names was Albert van der Baan. So there's some bitterness among the various branches towards cousin Albert. It doesn't help Albert has a childish love for publicly embarrassing people with practical jokes and annoying gags. When he turns up at the reunion, Albert immediately digs into his bag of practical jokes to embarrass several relatives at the cafe. Some begin to gleefully fantasy and speaking of murdering their loathsome cousin, "we are banding together in a union to exterminate Albert van der Baan, right Willemien?" ("you're joining us, right?"). Fortunately, Albert appears to have left the reunion during their trip to the museum.

However, they only notice Albert has gone missing when they arrive at Aunt Emilie estate for dinner and everyone is relieved, until the police arrives to interrupt their meal. Albert's body was found crammed into a bedstee (box bed) of a Veluwe farmhouse at the museum. Someone cracked his skull with a copper beddepan (bedpan) and delayed the discovery by placing a "VERBODEN TOEGANG" ("DO NOT ENTER") sign at the door. I should mention here for non-Dutch readers that the titular museum is the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, a cultural historical museum, which shows how people lived and worked over the centuries. It has replicas of old Dutch houses, farms, shops, huts etc.

So the first-half of Murder at the Open Air Museum appears routine enough with a setup suggesting Van Etten was going to style her first mystery novel after the British Crime Queens, but the handling of the investigation has unmistakable features of the police procedural. The investigation is in the hands of Inspector Peter Schoten, but since everyone involved live all over the country, it's not a one-man show. Schoten has to delegate a lot of work to his subordinates and work together with the police of other cities like Inspector Kindelman of the Rotterdam Police (I wonder if Lucien de Klerck has heard of him). The investigation during the first-half consists of mapping everyone's movement at the museum, tracking down witnesses to corroborate their statements and generally trying to whittle down the number of suspects – while fishing for a potential motive. So it almost reads like a proto-police procedural which made it a bit surprising when Van Etten seemed to interject an actual amateur sleuth into the case.

I know what most of you're saying: "but Tom, those meddlesome nuisances are as common as the common cold and all over the genre." Not really in this country and suspect the holds true for other nearby countries like Germany and Denmark. A nosy, busybody with too many questions wouldn't be indulged or tolerated for very long. That why Dutch detective novels, particularly those in a more or less traditional mold, tend to have professionals as investigators who are both in a position to ask questions and expect an answer. So police inspectors, private detectives or lawyers. Maybe even a doctor or clergyman at a stretch. If you read my previous Dutch detective reviews, past and present, you probably noticed the lead characters are nearly always policemen. Someone who doesn't fit the bill of a typical, professional Dutch detective character is a twentysome, third-year sociography student named Johannes "Joop" Verkoren de Zwart – who's lively, sociable and rarely at a lost for words. Behind his indifferent attitude and chatter "lies a remarkably sharp mind."

It was Joop who discovered Albert's body together with the gatekeeper when looking for his lost walking stick and that's how he comes into contact with Inspector Schoten. Joop starts working his charm on Schoten, "do you ever read detective stories... in which the clever amateur always sees more than the police." So against better judgment and protocol, Joop gets to participate in the investigation and not without consequences. This throws the second-half of this orderly, procedural detective story in complete disarray. Not because of the promised second murder. That one is still a few chapters ahead, however, an unusual death by poisoning during a lecture is cleverly-linked to the first murder by both the suspects in audience and an unexpected, equally unusual murder weapon/method. But describing anything pass this point would be crossing into spoiler territory.

So how does Van Etten's Murder at the Open Air measure up as a detective novel and can stand comparison to its American and British counterparts? Just as a Dutch detective novel, it certainly is a cut above most of the 1950s titles I've read for two clear reasons. Most of the pre-1960s titles suffer from old-fashioned, stilted use of language and archaic spelling, which is not a problem at all and suppose her background in writing for teenagers helped to keep Murder at the Open Air readable for a today's readers. It feels much closer to the works of later mystery writers like Ton Vervoort and Cor Docter. More importantly, it has a consistent plot with substance and a solution that holds together. I know that sounds like the basic requirement for any detective story, but refer you to the previously mentioned reviews of Van Oyen's Afterwards, Murder or Van Ruler's Murder of a Negative to remind everyone that's not always a guaranteed in this country.

Murder at the Open Air Museum is not without its fair share of imperfections and shortcomings. I can see how most non-Dutch readers would likely find the characterization a bit lacking compared to her British counterparts, clueing not as sharp and the plot becoming a little workmanlike towards the end, but perhaps its biggest drawback is leaving a couple of potentially good ideas underdeveloped. For example, the fantastic scenery of the museum is just that, scenery, while the second murder could have been developed into a much more meatier howdunit – which could have been used to turn it into an inverted mystery during its closing stages.

Murder at the Open Air Museum is not a flawless gem, but Van Etten produced a fairly competent, spirited first stab at the detective story showing she had the right idea, but lacked the experience. But had she continued, Murder at the Open Air Museum could have been to Van Etten what Death in High Heels (1941) was to Christianna Brand or The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1916/20) to Agatha Christie. The first, tentative steps towards writing a genre classic like a Green for Danger (1944) or Death on the Nile (1937). Somewhere in the vast, all-encompassing everything of the multiverse, Van Etten would have gone on to become the Christianna Brand of the Low Countries with the Dutch detective story actually taking off during the 1950s and following a similar route as the British or Japanese genre. Instead I am stuck here in this shitty Berenstain universe with you lot.

Anyway, to cut this meandering mess shot, I quite enjoyed this less than perfect, second-string diamond-in-the-rough.

Note for the curious: I know this has gone on long enough and initially wanted to delete this part, but decided to keep it in. Some of you also enjoy my occasional brilliant, but completely wrong armchair solutions. During the first-half, I puzzled together a fun and entirely incorrect solution which was obliterated by the second-half. So the opening chapters established Albert took a childish joy in embarrassing people with party store pranks and practical jokes. I reasoned Albert could easily have hidden himself inside the box bed, drawn the curtains and jump out to scare one of his relatives, which would not have been out-of-character for him. But mistakenly jumped out when Joop was examining the farmhouse, perhaps handling the antique bedpan to take a closer look. Joop, in a reflex, hit the figure who jumped out at him with the bedpan and unintentionally killed Albert. So what appeared to be deliberate family murder really is an accidental killing by an outsider with no direct link to the victim or apparent motive. And perhaps inserted himself into the investigation to divert suspicion (setting up a delaying tactic first and then help to find the body earlier than seemingly intended) or trying to prevent someone getting wrongly arrested. It's something I can see a Dutch mystery writer do in an attempt to rub some realism/normalcy into a British-style detective story, which would have perfectly fitted the first-half. But the second-half tossed my armchair solution into the dustbin. I'm done now.