After The Silence – Amsterdam Quartet 1

Author/Guide: Jake Woodhouse

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Jake does for Amsterdam what Ian Rankin does for Edinburgh. The first in the series of the Amsterdam Quartet

ISBN: 978-1405922357
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller

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What you need to know before your trail

High above the canals of Amsterdam’s old town, a body hangs, a mobile phone stuffed inside the victim’s mouth.

In a remote coastal village, a doll lies in the ashes of a burnt-down house. But the couple who died in the fire had no children of their own. So who did that doll belong to?

Inspector Jaap Rykel is the man to find the answers, if he can. He’s a troubled soul however since he is still suffering from the violent death of his last partner and so he’s got to work with a junior and an out of towner as well. Not the best of starts on such an important case.

For Amsterdam harbours some dark truths in its maze of waterways…..

Locations

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Travel Guide

Amsterdam is the city under threat here and a dark city with a dark heart. This is an Amsterdam of organised crime, abduction and a whole lot more. The way the police operate here seems strange and there is not even a easy time to be had within the police station’s walls. Never mind what is going on outside….Rykel has been off since the death of his partner, Andreas, but when he comes back he seems to under suspicion on his own patch.

His patch is of course the streets, canals and the infamous red-light district, with bad weather and a chilly atmosphere in more ways than one and you have an Amsterdam to remember.

Amsterdam

Before he was killed Andreas was investigating a gang called the Black Tulips. They were from Eastern Europe and worked in trafficking rings. This gang becomes linked to the phone murder and the gang associations seem to be wide spread across the city. The compactness and neatness of the city and the organised layout of its canals jars with the haphazard crime scene, but then things become clearer…

The canals and houseboats

Jaap Rykel, lives on a houseboat which has just been broken into. He and Kees Terpstra, attend the scene but their rocky relationship makes things that much harder. If things aren’t difficult enough with this crime, their sticking points will make it all the more so. Police are not that easy to work together in this city it would seem.

Outside of the city – Friesland

Sergeant Tanya van der Mark finds two bodies in a building – an obvious case of arson. The links lead back to the Black Tulips gang and so therefore to Rykel and the city of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam and its surroundings areas sure make for some gory crime scenes. The gang’s reach could be further and more complex than first thought.