Janwillem van de Wetering

Seen by many as a contemporary classic, Janwillem van de Wetering's small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student—later a widely celebrated mystery writer—who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, author of Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, has written, The Empty Mirror "should be very encouraging for other Western seekers." It is the first book in a trilogy that continues with A Glimpse of Nothingness and Afterzen.

Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery

The Empty Mirror

"[Van de Wetering] is doing what Simenon might have done if Albert Camus had sublet his skull." —John Leonard On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, a man is found hanging from the ceiling beam of his bedroom, upstairs from the new religious society he founded: a group that calls itself “Hindist” and supposedly mixes elements of various Eastern traditions. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances. This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.

Outsider in Amsterdam

Ein Blick ins Nichts. Erfahrungen in einer amerikanischen Zen- Gemeinde.

Experiences of a Zen Student Out on His Ear

Afterzen

The 1988 Mystery Writers of America Anthology

Distant Danger

Maria van Buren, a beautiful, high-class prostitute, is found dead with a knife in her back in her houseboat on an Amsterdam canal. Grijpstra and de Gier must solve the murder. Her tony clients all have sound alibis. Before the murderer is caught, the detectives and their commissaris will investigate allegations of black magic, travel to Curacao, and pursue clues to a chilly island off the coast of Holland.

Tumbleweed

Hugh Pine, a porcupine, decides to live alone on an island in order to get away from all the problems the forest animals bring to him; but after a time he decides being alone isn't so wonderful after all.

Hugh Pine and the Good Place

The ninth Amsterdam Cops mystery Sergeant de Gier spots a vulture at the scene of a murder in Amsterdam’s red light district. The victim, a despicable and widely hated pimp, is now only a police matter to be disposed of with typical Dutch tidiness. However, once Grijpstra, de Gier and the canny commissaris get involved, their search leads to a denouement infinitely more shocking than the crime itself.

The Streetbird

Inspector Saito's Small Satori

Born in Holland in 1910 but raised in Java, Robert Hans van Gulik explored esoteric Buddhism and translated ancient texts, including an authentic Chinese 16th century detective novel, around which he created a fictional series. Based on extensive research, renowned author Janwillem van de Wetering, whose life and career parallels that of his subject, examines van Gulik's life and work.

His Life, His Work

Robert Van Gulik

In A Glimpse of Nothingness, celebrated mystery novelist Janwillem van de Wetering offers a sequel to his earlier memoir, The Empty Mirror, which concerned the author's experiences at a Zen monastery in Japan in the middle 1960s. Originally published in 1975, A Glimpse of Nothingness chronicles van de Wetering's time at the Moon Springs Hermitage in Maine. The book offers a complete and compelling description of the Zen path pursued by one sensitive Westerner who began his quest by seeking for the sense of it all-and who eventually came to realize at least a part of it. The follow-up to this book is van de Wetering's Afterzen.

Experiences in an American Zen Community

A Glimpse of Nothingness

Retired Amsterdam policeman Grijpstra receives a frantic late-night phone call from his old partner, de Gier—now living on an island near Jameson, Maine—who fears he may have accidentally killed his girlfriend. He is being blackmailed and can’t remember if he did it; he was just too drunk. Would his old partner please fly over at once? Grijpstra grudgingly makes his way to the US to help his old partner and confronts his own demons along the way.

Just a Corpse at Twilight

A recluse has been shot right between the eyes as he stood looking out of his bedroom window. His neighbor, a schoolteacher who is a pistol shot champion, admits she discovered the body and failed to report it. Is she really guilty of murder?

The Corpse on the Dike

Amsterdam cops Henk Grijpstra and Rinus de Gier are together again in Maine, with de Gier believing that he may have killed his girlfriend and being blackmailed and Grijpstra coming to his rescue

Michael Connelly

George P. Pelecanos

James Crumley

Jon A. Jackson

Measures of Poison

Three mysteries involving the Amsterdam police on their own turf.

The Maine Massacre and Two Other Great Mysteries

The fourteenth Amsterdam Cops Mystery Retired policemen Grijpstra and de Gier are being blackmailed. The threat is a serious one: to set the income tax authority on them. The blackmailers, a wealthy yacht owner and his son, want them to investigate the mysterious hijacking of a supertanker’s entire cargo in the Caribbean. The Amsterdam cops reluctantly agree to take the case. Their rendezvous is in Key West, where they are confronted with a murder. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Perfidious Parrot

De Chinese monnik Xuangzang reist in de zevende eeuw naar India om boeddhistische soetra's te verzamelen, waarbij hij de steun krijgt van verschillende bovennatuurlijke volgelingen, zoals de aap Sun Wukong en het varken Zhu Bajie. Aap is een klassieke Chinese sage uit de zestiende eeuw, en tegelijkertijd een volksverhaal, een schelmenroman, een spannende avonturenroman en een boeddhistische verhandeling. Janwillem van de Wetering heeft een eigenzinnige bewerking gemaakt van dit klassieke boek.

Aap - Een klassieke Chinese roman

Two single-minded detectives, Grijpstra and de Gier, follow a trail of murder, disappearance, and robbery and encounter a bizarre collection of characters in the streets of Amsterdam

Janwillem van de Wetering

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