The Year's Best Crime Writer: Charles Den Tex Discusses Crime Writing in The Netherlands

Abstract

k A International rime csl Myste ry MADISON DAVIS The Years Best Crime Writer: CHARLES DEN TEX DISCUSSES CRIME WRITING IN THE NETHERLANDS Behind almost all greatworks of literature is a crime. From the adultery of Helen of Troy, to Herod's slaughter of the innocents, to The Kite Runner and The Lovely Bones: it ishard to think of works of literature that don't have some kind of crime as their foundation. Nonethe less, the arbitrariness of the culture hierar chy often designates novels and stories that are based on tra ditional crime writing forms as belonging to low culture. This is less common in the United States where presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton made no secret of their love for mysteries, but even in continental Europe, crimewriters often find that it is difficult to be taken seriously as writ ers by the literarypress. As thepopularity of mysteries and thrillers has spread, however, promoting crime fiction as a literary genre has become the objective of many writers' groups such as the Genootschap van Nederlandstalige Misdaadauteurs (the association of Dutch language crimewriters) and Das Syndikat (German crimewrit ers). One of the most interesting ways that writing ispromoted in the Netherlands is through a program begun in 1932 by a foundation set up by booksellers and publishers. A dedicated public relations orga nization with a strong budget, the CPNB (Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek) organizes a number of events, such as Book Week inMarch (since 1932, pro moting literature in general), Chil dren's Book Week inOctober (since 1955), and Crime Fiction Month in June (since 1989). As part of both Book Week and Crime Fiction Month, a writer of stature is selected in each category to com pose a novella, which is distributed free to everyone who buys 12.50 worth of books. The novella is printed in astonishing numbers. This year's numbered 865,000, roughly equiv alent to one book for every twenty people in the nation. The CPNB alternates between for eign authors and Dutch language authors, but the author selected is recognized as one of the best in the genre. The author selected forthisyear's Crime Fic tionMonth is Charles den Tex. "For the author," he says, "it is an honor to be asked. And itusually provides a huge boost in visibil ity and sales, because the PR machine of the CPNB is awesome. To have that on your side is a dream come true." Three-time winner of the Gouden Strop (Golden Noose) award forbest Dutch crime novel of the year, Den Tex was born in Aus tralia in 1952 but barely remembers September - October 2010 1 9 Crime & Mystery anything about that land because he moved back to theNetherlands at age five.After secondary school in Leiden and photography and film school in London, he returned to Leiden in 1978 and began work as an advertising copywriter. In that job,he says, he began to respect the craft ofwriting, but itwasn't until 1991,when he was feeling burned out from advertising work, thathe took offsixmonths and began writ ing his firstnovel, Dump. Written in English, it took four years of revisions before itwas finallypub lished in 1995. Including Dump, Den Tex has now published ten nov els, including his latest, Wachtwoord (Password). "I was definitely influenced by Desmond Bagley and Nevil Shute," says Den Tex. "They were the authors I firstread in thegenre. Especially Bagley. I raced through his books?the adventure story with a (sometimes) hot topicorwith some kind of professional at its center: a geologist or a hurricane specialist. "I startedwriting myself when in the course ofmy work I learned more about how we get rid of haz ardous waste (or "special waste," as the British call it?so British). I figured out a plot and a story, and one day when I foundmyself with a lot of time on my hands (about sixmonths), I decided towrite the story. After many rewrites itbecame my firstthriller, Dump." Den Tex's background in busi ness is a bit unusual for writers, but it gives him a specialized knowl edge that informshis literary work. "I was a PR consultant, a man...