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Anja De Jager

Teoksen A Cold Death in Amsterdam tekijä

7 teosta 134 jäsentä 5 arvostelua

Tietoja tekijästä

Includes the name: Anja De Jager

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Tekijän teokset

A Cold Death in Amsterdam (2015) 49 kappaletta
A Cold Case in Amsterdam Central (2016) 28 kappaletta
A Death at the Hotel Mondrian (2019) 12 kappaletta
Death at the Orange Locks (2020) 9 kappaletta

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Jäseniä

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My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
As an avid reader of Crime fiction I am somewhat embarrassed to admit, I had never heard of this Author or the excellent Lotte Meerman even though this is the sixth book in the series. Firstly let me say while there are some references to our heroines previous cases seeing her feature on the front pages of newspapers this totally works as a standalone story. This is a modern day character driven Police procedural set in Amsterdam, with just one murder to solve so in some ways an old fashioned whodunit, but none the worse for that. Lotte quickly finds herself in conflict with her colleagues and family when the main suspect turns out to be a blast from the past. Atmospheric engaging enjoyable from first to last page as Lotte narrates us through her feelings and thoughts on this complex case, so much so that you feel a part of the investigation.
Recommended.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Gudasnu | Nov 23, 2021 |
I'm always looking for books set in locations I have a little familiarity with, it's for this reason I have read so many books set in Berlin. However, I have struggled a little to find too many books set in another city close to my heart, Amsterdam. I came across this series somewhere online and after enjoying The Darkness I felt like reading another crime novel with a female lead detective. As much as I love books by Mankell and Nesbo it is nice to have the change of pace that a female leads brings. I avoided reading too much of the synopsis so that I came into the book as open minded as possible.

Our lead character is Lotte Meerman who seems to specialise in cold cases. As the book starts she has solved a 15 year old case involving the murder of a little girl. This case is currently in the hands of the prosecutor awaiting trial but she is still haunted by the memories of the case and it is causing her nightmares. To help her avoid the pain these memories brings she throws herself into another cold case investigation involving the murder of a man involved in a financial crime. As she starts digging it emerges that her estranged father, a retired detective, was involved in the original investigation. There are some evidential irregularities and despite the fact that she knows she should hand the investigation over due to the conflict of interest she doesn't and soon gets sucked deeper into a situation she can't see an escape from.

I feel a bit conflicted about this book, there were some parts I really liked and other parts that seemed to jar a bit with me. The parts that jarred are probably just down to my preferred style of writing so take what I say with a pinch of salt. Starting with the good stuff, the story is really well paced. There is enough going on to keep to keep the story moving on but not too much that it gets messy. The setting is really well described and being winter really adds an extra element to the atmosphere generated by the writing. I also really liked Lotte even if I did think some of her decisions were a bit crazy. Like all the best detectives she is a bit of a loner but doesn't isolate herself completely from other members of her team. She has some demons but they all come from a place that is completely understandable. Now the parts I didn't get on with. I found the first person writing a bit hard to settle with in places. I'm pretty confident that is down to me and not the writing as I don't think I have read another crime novel written in the first person and this is why I found it a bit strange. My other bugbear is that I found the mass of people involved a little hard to follow a few times. This again I think is more of a reflection on me rather than the book.

Overall I enjoyed the book and I have already got the next in the series on my Kindle for when the fancy takes me.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Brian. | 2 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jul 29, 2021 |
Policing runs in Lotte Meerman’s family. Her father is a retired police officer, and she herself is on the force with the cold case squad. One of the cold cases that crosses her desk happens to be her father’s last case before he retired—and something’s fishy about it that makes him look like a suspect. And as if that isn’t enough, Lotte is still dealing with the fallout (personal and professional) from a particularly traumatic case.

I liked the idea of this series, and the setting of Amsterdam was definitely a draw. It was a good choice to set the book in winter, too, because most people’s image of Amsterdam is going to be a nice sunny day in April, when the tulips are out. But in comparison to other mysteries I’ve read recently, I found this one flat. There were some good turns of phrase and a good cast of characters, but for whatever reason I found myself stuck at “almost liked this, but not quite.”… (lisätietoja)
½
 
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rabbitprincess | 2 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Sep 19, 2019 |
I am always on the lookout for new crime writers, and the prospect of a series featuring an engaging protagonist and an intriguing setting seemed enticing. Anja de Jager certainly delivers with regard to the setting. Her novels are set in Amsterdam, and she captures the atmosphere marvellously. She also clearly knows how to weave a gripping story.

The novel opens with two detectives attending the scene of death of a painter and decorator who has fallen seven floors from a building that he and his team were working on. No-one else was around at the time, and it is unclear either why he was on the seventh floor, or how he came to fall. In the initial absence of any evidence to the contrary, the first detective attending the scene is inclined to write it off as a simple workplace accident. His colleague, Detective Lotte Meerman, who has only recently returned to duty after having been shot, and then subjected to an internal investigation, is less convinced.

Among the dead man’s effects is a key to a left luggage locker at Amsterdam Centraal railway station. When this locker is opened by his widow, she finds that it contains a human skeleton. Subsequent forensic investigation shows that the skull dates back to the Second World War. Some of the bones are less old, however, and it becomes apparent that, rather than being one intact skeleton, there are bones from two different bodies.

Detective Meerman is persistent in the face of opposition from her colleagues, and at best ambivalence from her line manager. She is, however, convinced that there is something deeply wrong here, and that the painter’s death is not the un fortunate accident that everyone else assumes.

The plot is well constructed and original, and Detective Meerman is a generally empathetic character, Unfortunately, like most fictional detectives these days, she is liberally strewn with ‘ussies’, both medical, emotional and psychological. While that may, no doubt, contribute to overall verisimilitude, in this case I found that the backstory predominated to such an extent that they detracted significantly from my enjoyment of the novel.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Eyejaybee | Nov 5, 2017 |

Tilastot

Teokset
7
Jäseniä
134
Suosituimmuussija
#151,727
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.7
Kirja-arvosteluja
5
ISBN:t
27
Kielet
1

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