Perhaps not as psychologically profound as the Maigret series, but interesting story and characters. Baantjer is extraordinarily popular in the Netherlands and wrote, I believe, about sixty in the series. ( )

DeKok attends the funeral of a murder victim, buried in Amsterdam but murdered in Antwerp. He sees a man who is supposed to be dead. He can't leave it alone. Where has this man been all these years? Why is he here now?

In his usual inimitable style, DeKok ("with a KOK") investigates, ultimately ending up in Antwerp himself and finding an unusual "cult" called Heaven's Gate Temple.

A curious religion, if that's what it is. And DeKok discovers what it really is.

I don't love Inspector DeKok. There is something too flippant about him, and there is too much telling as opposed to showing by the author, for my taste. The book kept me interested enough, however. A quick read. ( )

De Cock en Vledder zijn, op verzoek van de Antwerpse politie, aanwezig bij de begrafenis van een Nederlander die in Antwerpen vermoord werd. De Cock meent bij het graf een man te zien die al twee jaar dood is...
Met degelijk speurwerk ontrafelt De Cock de zaak. ( )

A nice little mystery, that makes me long for Amsterdam again. It's been 30 years since I was there, but I still can recall so much of the city. I felt incredibly at home there. As javaczuk says, the story was pretty predictable, but the journey to the end was pleasant. I think I will see if there is an interest in a ring for people who may want to go to the 2010 BookCrossing Convention in Amsterdam. One funny note is that I also enjoy reading the mysteries of Janwillem Van de Wetering, who was once once a motorcycle gang member in South Africa, an aspiring monk in Kyoto, Japan and a policeman in Amsterdam. I find those less of the "cozy" variety, and a bit more lively. When I picked this up, in my mind, I made the translation that it was a Van de Wetering story, so was quite startled at the totally different pace and names. Took me a minute to recall that it was a different author, different set of characters-- same beloved Amsterdam. I did learn from a Dutch friend in the BookCrossing forum that in the dutch versions, DeKok's name is De Cock, with cee-oh-cee-kay. Probably some English publisher was worried that someone would think of cock as boy bits and be offended. ( )