Vrouw in chinchilla, De

Inhoud

In een flat in New York ligt het lijk van een vrouw. Ze is vermoord. En de luxueus ingerichte slaapkamer is kennelijk door de moordenaar doorzocht. Overal liggen kostbare kleren op de grond.
Hoofdinspecteur Brewer weet dat de dode een bewogen leven achter zich heeft: ze was naaktdanseres en eigenares van een nachtclub, ooit verwikkeld in een callgirl-schandaal en in de handel in verdovende middelen. Motieven te over voor een moord!

Bespreking

How lucky we are that this does not happen in real life!

In a New York apartment the body of a woman is discovered. She was killed. The luxurious bedroom was thoroughly searched presumably by the killer. Everywhere the most expensive clothes are lying around. Chief Inspector David Brewer knows that the victim lived on the edge of legality: in a previous life she was a stripper and was the owner of a night club, that got mentioned in a call-girl scandal and in a case involving hard drugs. All motives are present for murder.
Die Dame im Chinchilla opens with a convincing crime scene setting, but quickly loses that realistic touch. Character development is lacking completely. The main characters have a name, and that is simply all the information the reader ever gets. Needless to say that you never get emotionally involved into the story. At about two third of the book the murderer is caught using dirty police tricks. In real life any laywer would get the murderer free again without problem, due to the methods used by the police. By confronting all suspects with fake evidence, the police inspector convinces the real murderer that the game is over. Of course, the murderer is left only one choice: admit he did it! Really?
Note: I read the Dutch translation: "De vrouw in chinchilla".