review
The death of a beautiful woman is the solo debut of Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff from Aduard. The exciting story is situated on Ameland. The dead woman is found on the Oerd, the eastern tip of the island. The writer makes an exciting history of it, on an island where nothing so serious actually happens. In the book, it seems to happen again within a short time of the victim’s discovery. Ameland is in the news in a lurid way and the Wadden Island is fortunate that it is fiction, a book to take to the beach to enjoy the descriptions of well-known places where unlikely exciting things take place there in peace and freedom. .
The solo debut of Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff
- The death of a beautiful woman
- Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff
- Publisher
- Islands thriller series
- An exciting book
The death of a beautiful woman
The victim that the book starts with is Anja. She works on the island and is a popular and beautiful woman. One day she is found dead by an employee of the NAM. When his night shift at the East Ameland location is over, and when the sun rises he takes a walk before leaving for home, he discovers her lifeless body in the dunes of the Oerd.
Murdered
She was gruesomely killed and raped before her death, the inquest shows. The two detectives Rinze Oostra and Sicko Holwerda come to the island especially for the investigation and to apprehend the perpetrator.
Suspects
The two men stay in a hotel in Nes. During the investigation, which takes several days, their list of suspects grows instead of being able to cross out names after more and more factual knowledge. Alibis are checked and one after the other suspects manage to talk about the suspicion, but the detectives do not trust it.
Second wife
One of the two men even finds the love of his life during his stay on the island. The story gains momentum when a second woman goes missing and one suspect remains to whom the net closes. Can the detectives, in collaboration with the police of Ameland, save the life of that second woman? That remains exciting until the last page.
Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff
Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff (1968) lives in Aduard, a village along the road between Zuidhorn and Groningen. She is married to Foeke and is working at DUO and RUG at the time of the publication of her book. Lies regularly visits Ameland and the other Wadden islands, although she never comes in the summer. Then she thinks it is too busy. Sometimes she stays with an acquaintance who rents out a house, but usually she books a hotel. She calls herself an “island madman”.
Solo debut
Writing and nature are her two passions. On the island she found inspiration for the book and she studied the island to use elements in her story. The death of a beautiful woman is her solo debut. Previously she wrote a thriller with Irma Aalders entitled ?? Inhur ??.
Inhur
The writer’s debut ?? Inhur ?? is about a man who made it all the way but is in a midlife crisis. He decides to go on an adventure with his old comrade, just like before. Only he does not know that the expedition leader is his ex, who still loves him. The expedition is a journey to an ancient and unknown people in Alaska. They seem to have discovered a substance that you can live with forever.
Broken toe
It was a broken metatarsal bone that put her on the path of her solo debut. Co-writer Irma Aalders, who already has several books to her name, stimulated her to write them. Lies got a boost when, after the bankruptcy of the company where she worked, she lost her job and started walking the Pieterpad. That was not a long walk, because she died at Sleen: her metatarsal bone broke and continuation of the Pieterpad was not an option. She wanted to give that bad luck a positive spin and Lies did that by starting her own book. She took the laptop on her lap and started writing.
Publisher
She had had the story in her head for a long time and she could draw from that baggage. Gradually she added things and deleted a few things. That process was repeated several times between 2015 and 2017, when the book was there. She had it edited and looked for a publisher. Finding a publisher turned out not to be that easy, which is why Lies decided to publish it in-house.
Islands thriller series
Lies is a real nature person and that is also reflected in the book. By writing the book she has immersed herself in various topics. She has learned a lot from that and she lets the reader enjoy it. She’s also going to study the other islands to turn it into an island thriller series. After the release of ‘The death of a beautiful woman’ in 2017, Lies picks up the pen to write a book that is situated on Schiermonnikoog.
Source: Cover book
An exciting book
The death of a beautiful woman is an exciting book that keeps the tension from start to finish. As a reader you speculate who the murderer may be and as the story progresses it swings back and forth between different people. Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff has beautifully described between all the dialogues and exciting treatises through the island. She takes different elements of nature, culture and the inhabitants into the story. For example, she has incorporated the saga of Rixt van ?? t Oerd into the book in a fun way.
Cover
The cover photo is from Lies herself. It is a picture of the beacon on the eastern end of Ameland. The body was found nearby. It is a pity about the cover that it is very gray and has hardly any contrast. The sky has no color and no drawing, the helmet is dark and the dune sand is gray. It doesn’t make the cover very appealing.
Main town and ferry
There are some mistakes in the text. For example, the ferry from Ameland does not ring a horn on arrival or departure and Nes is not the capital. The main town is Ballum, where the municipal council resides and all places on the island are villages, there is no city. There are also a few typos, but they don’t spoil the book. The colorful Piet does not belong with a capital letter and the large whale in front of the Nature Center is not Moby Dick. Moby Dick was a sperm whale and the whale in front of the museum is a blue whale. In the third edition Lies has improved as many of those trifles as possible.
To be horrified
Lies also describes situations that are beyond your imagination and that you don’t really want to know too much about. For example, the police on the island once had to lose a body of a German tourist who had committed suicide. The body bag was placed in a refrigerator of a restaurant. The very idea that the police would do such a thing and at which restaurant this could have happened is horrifying. Lies weaves various fun facts and stories into the text, such as about the history of facial hair. She writes about fads and trends, matters that are not directly related to the island. That reads nice and you also learn something from it. The death of a beautiful woman captivates from start to finish and is recommended as a holiday reading for a holiday on the island. You can immediately make it a sport to look up the locations that Lies describes in her book.
Book details
- Title – The death of a beautiful woman
- Writer – Lies van der Wal – Oosterhoff
- Edition 2017
- Publisher – in-house
- ISBN – 9789402161397
- Price – ?? 25.25
Ameland
a. Ameland
B.. Oerd
C.. Ho ?? n
D.. NAM location
E. Aduard
