I want to thank my friend Ann for guiding me to a mystery I never heard of but loved instantly.

The author, Janwillem Van De Wetering, is a former Buddhist monk, businessman, and member of the Amsterdam Police Force. That is a great background for a mystery writer, a mix that has inspired a gentle, compelling, and very well-written crime series based in one of the world’s most civilized cities.

The amiable Dutch police detectives in this book are  Detectives Gripstra and de Goer; they’ve already prompted a series of procedurals that are delightful, fascinating, and free of excessive gore and horror (the Buddhist influence, I’m guessing). I love the background details about Amsterdam, a star of the series. It  does sound like a fantastic place to live.

They work closely and skillfully together and project a striking gentleness and intuition.

I’m reading The Blond Baboon tonight, and I was into it from the first page when the two detectives get locked in an argument about a cat that knocks over marmalade bottles and shatters them all over the floor.

Gripstra and deGoer argue about it even as they chase a jewelry store thief into the alleys and through an awful storm. They catch him.

They want to get home and out of the storm (Amsterdam floods in storms). The body of Elaine Carnet – a middle-aged alcoholic, owner of a successful furniture company, and former nightclub singer is found lying at the foot of her garden steps in the middle of a hurricane, her face frozen in a macabre grin.

The detectives believe she was pushed to her death, her daughter seems to be lying about what happened, and off we go. I was hooked from the first page.

This is not a macho horror series. It’s just a really good and gentle mystery series. It reminds me a lot of P.D. James and Commander Adam Dalgleish, with Amsterdam as a backdrop. The book offers thoughtfulness and atmosphere instead of rape, kidnapping,  slaughter, and serial killers.

With the help of the Commissary (the Dutch equivalent of the British DI), their boss, a frail and saintly man. DeWatering believes that Amsterdam is, in fact, the most civilized city in the world. I’ve never been there, but this series makes me believe him.

It’s rare to stumble across a new mystery procedural that is so original, atmospheric, imaginative, and entertaining.  I’ve not seen the likes of these detectives, and I have read a lot of mysteries.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted, but I’m in so far; I’ve ordered more of the books. Thanks, Ann.

(I had to work hard to find these books and could only get used to hardcovers that were in good shape. It was worth the work. I want to read all of them, used but well preserved. We have a big storm coming tonight; I know what I’ll be doing.