Grijpstra and de Gier novels
Adjutant-Detective Henk Grijpstra and Detective-Sergeant Rinus de Gier, along with their never-named elderly superior, the Commissaris, are the most popular creations of Janwillem van de Wetering. They are police detectives in the Murder Brigade of the Amsterdam Municipal Police, and are featured in fourteen detective novels and several short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Grijpstra, heavy, middle-aged, and less than happily married, is the senior partner of the duo. Though he was raised in Amsterdam, he is a Frisian (from Friesland, a northern area of the Netherlands) born in the port city of Harlingen. In his youth he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician or a painter. When a set of drums mysteriously appeared in police headquarters he appropriated them.
De Gier, a younger man with deep brown eyes and curly hair, and most-often sporting a tasteful denim suit, is single, handsome, and very successful with women. He is an avowed bachelor and dedicated to his cats. He is a dreamer and a deep thinker, often pondering aloud on "the void," Zen, and life. A native of Rotterdam, de Gier is, like Grijpstra, an amateur musician. He often carries a small flute, and in odd moments he and Grijpstra improvise together in their office, where Grijpstra has his set of drums.
The Commissaris, small, elderly, and often nearly incapacitated by chronic rheumatism, supervises the partners' field investigations. Intelligent and broadly experienced, he often provides key insights into his juniors' cases, as well as philosophical commentary. A Frisian like Grijpstra, the Commissaris is fond of jenever and small cigars. Only his first name, Jan, is ever mentioned.
Grijpstra, de Gier, and the Commissaris first appeared in the novel Outsider in Amsterdam. The novels (in both publishing order and internal chronological order) are:
- Outsider in Amsterdam (1975)
- Tumbleweed (1976)
- The Corpse on the Dike (1976)
- Death of a Hawker (1977)
- The Japanese Corpse (1977)
- The Blond Baboon (1978)
- The Maine Massacre (1979)
- The Mind-Murders (1981)
- The Streetbird (1983)
- The Rattle-Rat (1985)
- Hard Rain (1986)
- Just a Corpse at Twilight (1994)
- The Hollow-Eyed Angel (1996)
- The Perfidious Parrot (1997)
A complete anthology of short stories, The Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories, was published in 1999, replacing two earlier anthologies, The Sergeant's Cat and Other Stories and The Amsterdam Cops and Other Stories. (The latter has also been published, confusingly, under the title The Sergeant's Cat, with some stories taken from the earlier collection of that title.)
Children's books
- Little Owl, 1978
- Hugh Pine, 1980
- Hugh Pine and the Good Place, 1981[1]
- Hugh Pine and Something Else, 1983
- Eugen Eule und der Fall des verschwundenen Flohs, 2001 (in German)
Other fiction
- The Butterfly Hunter, 1982
- Bliss and Bluster, 1982
- Inspector Saito's Small Satori, 1985 (collection)
- Murder by Remote Control, 1986 (graphic novel, with Paul Kirchner)
- Seesaw Millions, 1988
- Mangrove Mama and Other Tropical Tales of Terror, 1995 (anthology)
- Judge Dee Plays His Lute: A Play and Selected Mystery Stories, 1997 (anthology; includes the original play Judge Dee Plays his Lute and a selection of uncollected short stories)
- Die entartete Seezunge, 2004 (inspired by the World War 2 bombing of Rotterdam and the 9/11 disaster in NYC) (a novel in German, appeared as an article in Dutch)
Non-fiction
- The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery, 1971
- A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community, 1975
- De doosjesvuller en andere vondsten (The boxfiller and other findings), 1984 (essays in Dutch)
- Waar zijn we aan begonnen? (What have we started?), 1985 (essays in Dutch on the stages of life with the psychologist Hans van Rappard)
- Robert Van Gulik: His Life, His Work, 1988
- Afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student out on His Ear, 1999
Articles/stories not included in books
Translations
- Alexandra David-Néel and Lama Yongden: The Power of Nothingness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982 (French to English, with an introduction by the translator)
- Van de Wetering translated many books from English to Dutch and two books from French to Dutch.