I've long enjoyed the "Amsterdam Cops" series of police procedurals by Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering. They lean more on the personalities of the investigating officers than on the mysteries themselves and are gentle in tone, and yet I love spending time with Grijpstra and de Gier and their associates. The series is set during the sixties and seventies and feature Amsterdam as a quiet backwater with an occasional tourist. I was in the mood for short stories and so picked up this collection that spans the life of the series.

While the novels in the series allow the characters depth and nuance, short stories don't give the author enough time to develop the various miscreants, victims and dupes into full characters and given that the books were written a half century ago, many of the stories have aged badly. Some stories were fun -- the titular story involving a death threat to de Gier's cat was delightful, but too many involved foreigners behaving like cartoon stereo-types and the mysteries were too thin a scaffolding to make this book worth reading. Go read one of the novels in this series, and give the short stories a miss. ( )

Dutch Zen Cops: Mr. Van De Wetering's short stories are even better thanhis novels. His experiences in a zen monastary in Japangive these stories a slightly Zen Fable feeling, which is weird in what basically are police procedurals. All of his mystery books are highly recommended.