The Dutchman

Sergeant Major Geeske Dobbenga heads out on the patrol boat RV180 one last time before it is superseded by a more agile fleet of inflatables. On De Hond, a sandbank in the Wadden Sea, they find the dead body of a man who has likely drowned in an attempt to reach the German island of Borkum by crossing the Wadden Sea on foot during low tide.

Since this particular sandbank lies on disputed territory on the Dutch-German border, the police of both countries become involved. Down-to-earth, pragmatic Sergeant Major Dobbenga, and her German colleague Lothar see their bosses butting heads and decide that help from an intermediary is needed to get the investigation off the ground.

This marks the start of German inspector Liewe Cupido’s involvement. Cupido, nicknamed The Dutchman by his colleagues, grew up on the Dutch island Texel, the son of a German marine ecologist and a Dutch fisherman.

Cupido soon discovers that Klaus Smyrna, the man on the sandbank, did not die of natural causes; the autopsy reveals a blow to the back of his head. Smyrna, Aron Reinhard and Peter Lattewitz made up a well-known threesome of tidal flat hikers. Cupido asks the right questions: why wasn’t Aron part of the expedition? And how come his body was found upstream from the crossing route?

Deen shows himself to be an accomplished thriller writer, with convincingly, astutely drawn characters, and with his knowledge of the Wadden Sea, its currents and sands, seamlessly drawn into the story. With Inspector Cupido and the coastal zone near the Wadden Islands, Deen has found his own Kurt Wallander and Skåne. He is already at work on a sequel.