Allreaders.com

A Crime in Holland Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of A Crime in Holland


Maigret goes to Delfzijl, in the Netherlands, as an unofficial representative of the Police Judiciaire, for a French professor, Jean Duclos, from the University of Nancy, is being detained in the case of the murder of Conrad Popinga, a retired sea captain, whose guest he'd been while delivering a lecture on criminology. Popinga had been shot from his bathroom window, as he was returning to his house by bicycle, after seeing home Beetje Liewens, a neighbor. Duclos had heard the shot and rushed into the bathroom, and picked up the gun. A sailor's cap belonging to the seaman Oosting and a cigar butt are found in the house, but Maigret dismisses these as red herrings. In the house at the same time were Popinga's wife, Liesbeth Popinga, her sister, Any Van Elst, an unmarried lawyer, and a maid. Neighbors, Carl Weinand and his wife and children had been there, as well as Cornélius Barens, a cadet on the training ship Popinga taught at. The Dutch inspector, Pijpekamp, is anxious that the town not be disturbed, and hopes Maigret will agree that a foreign sailor did the crime and left by ship. But Maigret reconstructs the evening, and reveals that Any Van Elst, jealous of Popinga's attention to Beetje Liewens had decided to kill him. Beetje Liewens had been looking for anyone to take her away from Delfzijl. Maigret returns to Paris without being thanked. Any Van Elst later killed herself before the trial, and Beetje escaped Delfzijl to Paris, having married a light bulb salesman.
Click here to see the rest of this review...

The review of this Book prepared by Dana Samson



Chapter Analysis of A Crime in Holland

Click on a plot link to find similar books!

Plot & Themes

Composition of Book descript. of violence and chases 10%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 70%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 10%How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) 10% Tone of story    -   Dry-cynical How difficult to spot villain?    -   Challenging Time/era of story:    -   1960's-1970's What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot?    -   nearly 100% Misc. Murder Plotlets    -   Proving innocence of very obvious suspect Kind of investigator    -   police procedural, Foreign Kid or adult book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Crime Thriller    -   Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown)    -   Yes

Main Character

Gender    -   Male Profession/status:    -   police/lawman Age:    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Race    -   French Unusual characteristics:    -   Super genius

Setting

Europe    -   Yes European country:    -   Netherlands Misc setting    -   fancy mansion

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   moderately detailed references to deaths Unusual forms of death    -   perforation--bullets Unusual form of death?    -   Yes Amount of dialog    -   significantly more descript than dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like A Crime in Holland

Georges Simenon Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
2 Ways to Search!
Or



Our Chief Librarian