Reviews for The Sergeant's Cat and Other Stories

The average rating for The Sergeant's Cat and Other Stories based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-04-29 00:00:00 Kathy Moore I have to say I really enjoyed this quirky collection of short stories. I'd read the first Amsterdam Cops book, Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem van de Wetering last year and enjoyed it very much. The Sergeant's Cat & Other Stories is a series of short stories featuring the Amsterdam cops, Adjutant Gripjstra and Sgt de Gier. The book is a nice surprise. Over half of the stories feature the two cops and then for the last six we move out of Amsterdam and across the ocean for a variety of different and fascinating stories, even a dystopic end of the world story. The cop stories are all (and I'm using this word again) quirky and intriguing. While I might totally understand this term, at times it's almost theatre of the absurd. Van de Wetering has a nice touch compressing his mysteries into the short story format. The cops are humorous and basically use their intuition in figuring out the various mysteries. Their conversations make most of the stories Gripjstra is pudgy and curmudgeonly and de Gier handsome and intuitive. The last of the Amsterdam cop stories is particularly interesting. Letter Present features the two only in periphery and is more of a letter to them explaining the crime committed. It makes for a fascinating story. In the final stories, we move to Maine for some of them. Van de Wetering moved to Maine with his wife later in his life and that probably explains those stories. I think he actually plays a role in one of them. These stories had a much different tone, somewhat darker. The scifi story was very interesting. For the final two stories, van Wetering moves to India and Japan, both of them entertaining. All in all the book contained a series of entertaining short stories. I enjoyed them and look forward to continuing with van de Wetering's writing (4 stars)

Review # 2 was written on 2014-09-01 00:00:00 Michael Lerew This is a series of books I discovered when I was way younger and what struck me mostly was that they were written in English and about the Dutch police, especially police-officers Grijpstra & de Gier. As a student I did sell the almost complete series for the obvious reasons. There a two movies, one with the famous Rutger Hauer and that one is easily my favorite. A TV series lasting 4 seasons, of which I have seen not so much. What amazed me mostly about the Grijpstra & de Gier novels is that they were not translated in English or in Dutch, but that both versions were written for a different market so are similar but different. I find that an amazing feat for any writer. The version I am reading currently is the Dutch version, and I had not read this particular collection of short stories. However for anybody interested in this writers' mystery books it is the perfect way to get to know the writer as he changes his storytelling style with almost every tale. The first seven stories have Grijpstra & de Gier in common the other stories have the mystery or crime hook and a few are just about living your life from a Buddhist perspective as Mr van de Wetering was an accomplished zen-Buddhist. I have always enjoyed this writers style in which he tells a story which is far more about the characters and far less about action and police procedures.