The Harbour Master

By Daniel Pembrey

'A stunning setting and a detective to rival the best in European crime fiction' - David Young, author of Stasi Child

Henk van der Pol is a 30-year-term policeman, a few months off retirement. When he finds a woman's body in Amsterdam Harbour, his detective instincts take over, even though it's not his jurisdiction. Warned off investigating the case, Henk soon realises he can trust nobody, as his search for the killer leads him to discover the involvement of senior police officers, government corruption in the highest places, Hungarian people traffickers, and a deadly threat to his own family...

For fans of Euro Noir, John Harvey's Charlie Resnick series and Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, The Harbour Master is an action-packed detective investigation set in the evocative locale of Amsterdam. Delivering for Amsterdam what fans of Scandinavian fiction have come to love, this gripping novel shines a fascinating light on the dark side of a famously liberal society, combining vivid characterisation with ice-cold suspense.

Praise for Daniel Pembrey:

'Compelling and fast-moving [...] The exquisitely drawn Inspector van der Pol battles his way to the truth in a way that his fictional ancestor, Inspector Piet van der Valk, created by Nicolas Freeling, did in the Sixties' - Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

'Daniel Pembrey writes with great authority and authenticity. The Harbour Master is a compelling, highly believable tale set in the flesh markets of Amsterdam and the even seedier corridors of power beyond them, where it's hard to know who the real criminals really are. You'll keep turning these pages right till the end' - Howard Linskey, author of Behind Dead Eyes

'A splendid setting in what promises to be the start of a great new series' - Ragnar Jonasson, author of the international bestselling Dark Iceland series

'A vivid sense of place and a flawed and believable central character...could herald a great series and career from this new British author' - Maxim Jakubowski, Lovereading

'The Harbour Master is an accomplished novel, sporting a vividly realised sense of locale matched by an adroit evocation of character' - Barry Forshaw, Brit Noir

'The style of writing was so enjoyable...this really is an excellent read' - Sarah Ward, author of A Deadly Thaw

'The Henning Mankell of Amsterdam' - Bill Rogers, author of The Pick, The Spade and The Crow

• Language: English
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Release date: Sep 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781843448785

Daniel Pembrey

DANIEL PEMBREY grew up in Nottinghamshire beside Sherwood Forest. He studied history at Edinburgh University and received an MBA from INSEAD business school. Daniel then spent over a decade working in America and more recently Luxembourg, coming to rest in Amsterdam and London - dividing his time now between these two great maritime cities. He is the author of the The Harbour Master - the first book in the Henk van der Pol detective series - and several short thriller stories, and he contributes articles to publications including The Financial Times,The Times, The Guardian, The New European and The Field. His Henk van der Pol series is the product of time spent living in the docklands area of East Amsterdam, counting De Druif bar as his local. danielpembrey.com

Reviews for The Harbour Master

[dtchantel-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It takes an incredibly talented writer to pull off a novella. With the shorter form (usually a third of a full-length novel), it's very hard to encompass everything that makes a great story - characterization, backstory, atmosphere, setting and a complex or involving plot. Daniel Pembrey's "The Harbour Master" manages it all seemingly effortlessly.

Henk, as well as his wife, daughter and an assortment of other recurring characters, are very well drawn and make you feel that you know them right from the start. The author excels at descriptions of people and place. The way he paints a picture for you is such that the Red Light District of Amsterdam was almost palpable. I felt as if I were walking the streets with him, seeing and touching everything Henk did, and experiencing the sense of growing doom as each piece of this intricate puzzle unfolded. By the end of the book, I almost felt as if I'd been to Amsterdam.

There really was not a flaw in this... each scene just naturally pulled you along to the next until you absolutely couldn't wait to find out what was going on. The only thing that could make this better would be an endless stream of novels about Henk, or a mini-series based on these books.

[edwardsgt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having seen favourable reviews I was looking forward to reading this but ended up disappointed. I found the characters a bit hard to remember and didn't feel much empathy with the main character Henk.

[col2910_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis/blurb……..Maverick cop Henk van der Pol is thinking about retirement when he finds a woman’s body in Amsterdam Harbour. His detective instincts take over, even though it’s not his case. But Henk’s bigger challenge is deciding who his friends are – not to mention a vicious street pimp who is threatening Henk’s own family. As his search for the killer of the woman in Amsterdam Harbour takes him into a corrupt world of politics and power, Henk finds himself facing some murky moral choices. The Harbour Master delivers for Amsterdam what fans of Scandinavian crime fiction have come to love: a fascinating light shone on the dark side of a famously liberal society, combining vivid characterisation with ice-cold suspense. ----------------------------------My take.......This was my first taste of English author Pembrey’s work, though I do have his novel – The Woman Who Stopped Traffic, sitting on my kindle.The Harbour Master is a 100-odd page novella set in Amsterdam, somewhere I haven’t yet visited on my reading travelling. Pembrey’s tale was fast-paced and interesting.We had a 54 year old cop being side-lined and pushed out by his superiors as they seek to concentrate resources on cases that attract decent publicity that plays well in the media for their political masters. Henk is conflicted whether to resist or give in and depart quietly. When he’s sidelined after showing an interest in the body in the harbour case, he decides to resist.His wife seems to be facing similar difficulties in her chosen profession of journalism. His daughter is at university and a degree of separation and misunderstanding is an element within the family dynamic. This was an interesting tangent to the main drive of the narrative, but it helped put a bit of flesh on the bones, without detracting from the pace of the investigation.The further Henk delved into the case, the closer his family came into danger.Amsterdam, canals, Red Light District, prostitutes, pimps, Hungarian gangs, people trafficking, local politicians, corruption, influence, police resources, media, murder, death, tattoos, mis-trust, family, retirement and more.I’m not going to pretend this was the best book I have ever read, but it did the job and ticked enough boxes to have me looking forward to his longer treatment.We had enough depth to our main cop character - Henk without getting bogged down with unnecessary fluff. The plot moved quickly and held my interest – I’ve not come across Hungarian gangsters before in either my fictional reading or in following European news in general – so I’m unsure if they are an author invention or a real problem, maybe slightly less bothersome than the Russian mafia. I’m minded enough to find out though.Our setting, Amsterdam was a first for me in a crime book setting and it was interestingly portrayed. I doubt that I’ll be rushing to pay a visit sometime soon. I think my previous perception of every building being either a brothel, sex shop or a church was only partially borne out as Pembrey didn’t introduce many churches into his narrative!All in all – quick and satisfying.4 from 5I was sent a file-copy of this by the author in return for an honest review, thanks Daniel!

[eyejaybee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I bought this book on impulse, being in Amsterdam at the time and intrigued to see this English novel on sale in Schiphol Airport. The setting is accurately conveyed, and lends a depth to the story. Henk van der Pol is a jaded and cynical detective, based in Amsterdam’s IJ Tunnel police station, whose beat covers the central railway station, the harbour and the famous red light district. With thirty years’ service behind him, van der Pol has seen it all, and is weary from the infighting between his senior officers, and their relentless efforts to harvest favourable publicity.As the novel opens, van der Pol has himself witnessed the discovery of a woman’s body floating in the harbour. She had been beaten before being dumped in the water, and it emerges that she had been a prostitute working in the nearby red light district. Van der pol puts feelers out to try to discover more about her, but no-one is talking, not even his regular informants within the city’s murky underworld. As the investigation proceeds, a number of people become implicated: senior police officers, politicians and gangsters. There is even a cameo appearance from some Russian Hell’s Angels, and van der Pol also finds himself in Brussels, immersed in red tape.I enjoyed the book but felt that Pembrey just tried too hard. Like a lot of crime books that I have read recently, he seemed more concerned with generating as many intricacies of plot as possible, rather than concentrating on developing a sound, coherent story line and relying upon the quality of his writing and the strength of his characters to sustain the novel.