Sergeant's Cat

Eight of the stories in this collection feature the author's imperturbable and popular characters, Amsterdam policemen Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier. Dealing with thuggish drug dealers, erudite academicians and everyday businessmen, the homicide detectives perform at their cognitive best, sometimes as gloomy as a cloudy day, sometimes sunnily good-humored. Many of these stories, including the smoothly chilling ""There Goes Ravelaar'' and the lighthearted ``Houseful of Mussels,'' about an oceanographer who, hoping to make a fortune growing mussels, didn't pay enough attention to his love-life, have already appeared in Ellery Queen's Magazine. Six more stories have different settings and characters: two in lands of the East, recalling van de Wetering's interest in Zen Buddhism; two in the Netherlands; one featuring the willing victim of a beautiful vampire; and two, one a dire science fiction tale, set in Maine, where the author now lives. These are vintage van de Wetering storiesdry and wise, pared of all sentiment and unfailingly entertaining. (October)