- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (2 Feb 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141014067
- ISBN-13: 978-0141014067
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.2 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 278,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
When the body of a tramp, Jake Colby, is found in a secluded Amsterdam park, Dutch police detective Ronald Van Hijn believes that this is the ninth victim of the serial killer stalking the city. Yet, all previous victims were young, female and beautiful. What could have made the killer change his MO?
On the corpse Van Hijn finds contact details for Jon Reed, an Englishman who befriended Jake in London shortly before the murder. Van Hijn summons Jon to Amsterdam to identify the body and so sets him on his own journey of discovery.
Was Jake really a tramp? What revelation about his identity led him to a life on the streets? And did his fate lie not in the hands of a serial killer but in the horror of the Holocaust death camps some 60 years before?
The Devil's Playground is a thought-provoking debut crime thriller from a stunning new young talent. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Observer
‘Ambitious, audacious, powerful’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most impressive thrillers I've read for a long while. Detective Van Hijn is an interesting and original character, and his hunt for a possible serial killer in Amsterdam is well told and very scary in places. However it is the scenes set in the Holocaust that really take you to the dark side and have you horrified one minute and shedding tears the next. Some of the images in this novel stayed with me long after I'd finished reading. I admire authors who manage to combine a well-paced thriller plot with such thought-provoking subject matter - and I'd certainly recommend this novel.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My god, the previous reviewer must have read a different book! This is one of the most ambitious, dark and successful crime novels I've read in ages. The idea of snuff movies from Auschwitz is almost too horrible to contemplate - but Sherez convinces us that such a thing could have happened and his treatment of the subject is brilliant. Plus, surprisingly, he has a sort of twisted, Larry David-style humour. Very strange, very satisfying.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having read this recently for the fourth time, I was moved to review it.
Sherez's novel is an exceptionally well written thriller, streets ahead of the run of the mill police process fillers than invade the bookshelves of the nation.
If you like Amsterdam, it's also the most descriptive novel of this fascinating city.
The main character's delving into Europe's bleak and horrific past makes this a particularly involving serial killer novel. There is less suspense than in many thrillers, but to be honest: most suspense is fairly predictable anyway; does the hero survive? who will die next? I'd trade these obvious outcomes for a well crafted novel like Devil's Playground anyday.
Buy it here, it's only a penny plus postage. Don't let this one get away.
Sherez's novel is an exceptionally well written thriller, streets ahead of the run of the mill police process fillers than invade the bookshelves of the nation.
If you like Amsterdam, it's also the most descriptive novel of this fascinating city.
The main character's delving into Europe's bleak and horrific past makes this a particularly involving serial killer novel. There is less suspense than in many thrillers, but to be honest: most suspense is fairly predictable anyway; does the hero survive? who will die next? I'd trade these obvious outcomes for a well crafted novel like Devil's Playground anyday.
Buy it here, it's only a penny plus postage. Don't let this one get away.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great new talent
Reading this I was taken back to my first encounters with Frederick Forsyth, particularly The Odessa File. For Hamburg read Amsterdam. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2006 by Mr. M. Bryant
AVOID
Started off promising but soon descended into a rambling story with no real suspense and some graphic descriptions of torture suffered by the Jews in WW2 and the porn industry in... Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2006 by A. J. Green
Brilliant
you could just imagine in your mind eye, these things happening.
brill read, could'nt put it down.
brill read, could'nt put it down.
Published on 15 Aug 2004 by debbie smith
An utterly gripping piece of work
This is one of the most gripping books I've come across in years.Once I started reading it I could'nt put it down.That simple. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2004
overblown
Succumbing to the hype and the flap reviews, I bought this book and was very disappointed. It's often very cliched, especially when dealing with the detective, it can be quite... Read more
Published on 9 July 2004
A chilling and thought-provoking thriller
I was recommended this novel by a friend and despite the 400 odd pages pretty much read it in one sitting. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2004 by jennifer
Compelling, thought-provoking thriller
I found Devil's Playground to be an engrossing, compelling read from the first page to the last. It's the story of a city (Amsterdam) under the spell of a sadistic serial killer,... Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2004 by stranglevine
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