37. "Outsider in Amsterdam" by Janwillem van de Wetering

Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem van de Wetering is the first in a series of police procedurals that take place in the city of the book's title. Written in 1975, the book carries some outdated language, but the characters are interesting and the plot resolution satisfying.

Van de Wetering's writing tends to be somewhat choppy, in a style I might describe as Hemingway-esque--not a lot of sentence variety. As a reader, I don't particularly enjoy this style, and it sometimes interferes with my attention to the story. But the setting, characters, and unusual elements of the novel make up for that.