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Jan Willem Lincoln "Janwillem" van de Wetering (February 12, 1931 – July 4, 2008) was the author of a number of works in English and Dutch.
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Van de Wetering was born and raised in Rotterdam, but in later years he lived in South Africa, Japan, London, Colombia, Peru, Australia, Amsterdam and most recently in Surry, Maine, the setting of two of his Grijpstra and de Gier novels and his children's series about the porcupine "Hugh Pine".
Van de Wetering studied Zen under the guidance of Oda Sessō, together with Walter Nowick, at Daitoku-jiinKyoto. Van de Wetering lived a year in Daitoku-ji and half a year with Nowick outside the temple, and described his experiences in his book The Empty Mirror. The book includes an account of a visit to the monastery by Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, describing his own mixed thoughts about this representative of what he deemed an old-fashioned religion. Sōkō Morinaga, Walter Nowick's Dharma brother, wrote in Novice to Master about traditional practices at that time.
Toleration leads to friendship. Friendship always wins. There has never been a Buddhist war
— The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery, p. 74.
Van de Wettering also encountered American poet and author Gary Snyder (referred to in The Empty Mirror as "Gerald") during his time at Daitoku-ji. Snyder was also studying under abbot Oda Sesso Roshi at that time.
His many travels, and his experiences in a Zen Buddhist monastery and as a member of the Amsterdam Reserve Constabulary ("being a policeman in one's spare time" as he phrased it in his introduction to Outsider in Amsterdam) lend some authenticity to his works of fiction and non-fiction.
Van de Wetering was awarded the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1984 for his novel Maine Massacre. He died in Blue Hill, Maine, aged 77.
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Van de Wetering was particularly noted for his detective fiction, his most popular creations being Grijpstra and de Gier, a pair of Amsterdam police officers who figure in a lengthy series of novels and short stories. Most of the mysteries are rich with images from Amsterdam, where most of them take place; some also feature a cat: in earlier novels, one named Oliver; in later novels, a female named Tabriz. He also wrote stories for children and nonfiction works. He usually wrote in Dutch and then in English; the two versions often differ considerably.
Adjutant-Detective Henk Grijpstra and Detective-Sergeant Rinus de Gier, along with their never-named elderly superior, the Commissaris, are the most popular creations of Janwillem van de Wetering. They are police detectives in the Murder Brigade of the Amsterdam Municipal Police, and are featured in fourteen detective novels and several short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Grijpstra, heavy, middle-aged, and less than happily married, is the senior partner of the duo. Though he was raised in Amsterdam, he is a Frisian (from Friesland, a northern area of the Netherlands) born in the port city of Harlingen. In his youth he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician or a painter. When a set of drums mysteriously appeared in police headquarters he appropriated them.
De Gier, a younger man with deep brown eyes and curly hair, and most-often sporting a tasteful denim suit, is single, handsome, and very successful with women. He is an avowed bachelor and dedicated to his cats. He is a dreamer and a deep thinker, often pondering aloud on "the void," Zen, and life. A native of Rotterdam, de Gier is, like Grijpstra, an amateur musician. He often carries a small flute, and in odd moments he and Grijpstra improvise together in their office, where Grijpstra has his set of drums.
The Commissaris, small, elderly, and often nearly incapacitated by chronic rheumatism, supervises the partners' field investigations. Intelligent and broadly experienced, he often provides key insights into his juniors' cases, as well as philosophical commentary. A Frisian like Grijpstra, the Commissaris is fond of jenever and small cigars. Only his first name, Jan, is ever mentioned.
Grijpstra, de Gier, and the Commissaris first appeared in the novel Outsider in Amsterdam. The novels (in both publishing order and internal chronological order) are:
A complete anthology of short stories, The Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories, was published in 1999, replacing two earlier anthologies, The Sergeant's Cat and Other Stories and The Amsterdam Cops and Other Stories. (The latter has also been published, confusingly, under the title The Sergeant's Cat, with some stories taken from the earlier collection of that title.)
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