After the Silence by Jake Woodhouse
The House of Dolls by David Hewson
Talking Location With … Bernadette Bernson: WHITBY
Ten Great Books Set in THE NETHERLANDS
7th October 2026
Ten great books set in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands, often called Holland, is a densely populated Western European nation renowned for its flat landscape, canals, tulip fields, and cycling culture. Its capital, Amsterdam, features historic artistic masterpieces and scenic waterways. A pioneer in water management, roughly a quarter of the country lies below sea level, protected by an intricate system of dikes, dams, and historic windmills. As a constitutional monarchy with a vibrant economy, the Netherlands champions progressive values, international law, and global trade, making it a cultural and economic powerhouse in the heart of Europe.
Here are ten of our favourite books set in the country
After the Silence by Jake Woodhouse
A body is found hanging on a hook above the canals of Amsterdam’s old town, a mobile phone forced into the victim’s mouth.
In a remote coastal village, a doll lies in the ashes of a burnt-down house. But the couple who died in the fire had no children of their own. Did a little girl escape the blaze? And, if so, who is she and where is she now?
Inspector Jaap Rykel knows that he’s hunting a clever and brutal murderer. Still grieving from the violent death of his last partner, Rykel must work alongside a junior out-of-town detective with her own demons to face, if he has any hope of stopping the killer from striking again.
Their investigation reveals two dark truths: everybody in this city harbours secrets – and hearing those secrets comes at a terrible price …
After the Silence introduces Inspector Jaap Rykel in a gripping debut police procedural from Jake Woodhouse, which is sure to appeal to fans of Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson and Stuart MacBride. This is the first novel in The Amsterdam Quartet series.
Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age by Michael North
During the seventeenth century, the Netherlands-a small country with just two million inhabitants and virtually no natural resources-enjoyed a “Golden Age” of economic success, world power, and tremendous artistic output. In this book Michael North examines the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch society boasted Europe’s greatest number of cities and highest literacy rate, unusually large numbers of publicly and privately owned art works, religious tolerance, and a highly structured and wide-ranging social network. He explores the reasons for the country’s success in trade and industry as it emerged from the Eighty Years’ War against Spain, and the ways that art played a role in the innovative climate of the times. North looks at the practical aspects of this Golden Age-the banking system, demographic changes, and what made such industries as textiles and shipbuilding so successful. In this period commercialization not only had far-reaching effects on the economic life of the Netherlands, it also affected art, as market forces proved more powerful than patronage for the first time in Europe. With fascinating information about many artists, including Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Pieter de Hooch, North considers painting as a profession, the exhibitions and sales of art works (including the Dutch lottery system), auctions, and the prices that were paid for art. He compares the prices of different artistic genres and studies patterns of picture ownership. Through a close analysis of the private collection of Rembrandt’s money lender, Harman Becker, North reveals the function served by works of art in Dutch households. This rich, in-depth view of the Dutch Golden Age will intrigue all readers with an interest in social, economic, or art history.
Dirty Pictures by Patricia Ketola
When New York art dealer Elizabeth Martel’s mother falls ill, she returns to her hometown in the Midwest. After her mother’s death she is seriously short of funds, and a friend suggests she take a job as art adviser to billionaire grain merchant, Preston Greylander.
When Greylander is killed in a mysterious murder-suicide, Martel is left in possession of a Rembrandt that needs restoration. She takes the painting to Amsterdam where she deposits it with the prestigious firm of Van der Saar Fine Arts.
The Van der Saar family has been in the art business since the seventeenth century and the current generation is represented by two brothers: Hendrik, suave and charismatic, is the perfect front man, while the deceptively low-key Willem is a master of restoration. Hendrik and Martel enthusiastically resume an old love affair, and she discovers that the brothers’ personal lives are in chaos, and the family is haunted by guilt and swathed in deception.
As doubts arise about the authenticity of the Rembrandt, other actors arrive in Amsterdam determined to recover the picture.
Dirty Pictures is narrated by a woman with a brash, irreverent point of view. Martel’s voice is caustic, satirical, and darkly humorous. It gets into the readers head and stays there.
Patricia Ketola borrows freely from the genres of the crime novel, the family saga and the love story and combines them into a unique vision of life in a world heading for disaster. This richly textured novel celebrates the profound, the beautiful, and the good, and there is a lot of deep knowledge backing up Martel’s often outrageous statements.
Rembrandt’s Promise by Barbara Leahy
Hanging beside the door is a painting of a wedding feast. The light is centred on the bride; the guests are banished to the shade. That is how it is when he looks at her: all others fade away.
1642.
The Dutch Golden Age is underway, with Amsterdam at the height of its powers.
Geertje, an impoverished widow from Edam, enters a melting pot of wealth and culture when she becomes nursemaid in the house of renowned painter Rembrandt.
After Rembrandt’s wife dies, Geertje is drawn deeper into his world and despite her friends’ warnings, she begins a passionate affair with the master of light and shadow, with devastating results.
Based on the true account of a wronged woman who demanded justice, with themes of feminism, loss, ambition and redemption, this is a remarkable debut, perfect for fans of sumptuous historical fiction.
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . . On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin. Only later does Johannes appear and present her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in unexpected ways . . . Nella is at first mystified by the closed world of the Brandt household, but as she uncovers its secrets she realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. Does the miniaturist hold their fate in her hands? And will she be the key to their salvation or the architect of their downfall? Beautiful, intoxicating and filled with heart-pounding suspense, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.
When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew by Hendrika de Vries
Born in the Netherlands at a time when girls are to be housewives and mothers and nothing else, Hendrika de Vries is a “daddy’s girl” until her father is deported from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to a POW camp in Germany and her mother joins the Resistance. In the aftermath of her father’s departure, Hendrika watches as freedoms formerly taken for granted are eroded with escalating brutality by men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem “inferior” and those who do not obey.
As time goes on, Hendrika absorbs her mother’s strength and faith, and learns about moral choice and forced silence. She sees her hidden Jewish “stepsister” betrayed, and her mother interrogated at gunpoint. She and her mother suffer near starvation, and they narrowly escape death on the day of liberation. But they survive it all–and through these harrowing experiences, Hendrika discovers the woman she wants to become.
War and Love by Melanie Martin
An extraordinary story of one family’s torment, betrayal and perseverance in war time Amsterdam.
War and Love is a fascinating and detailed memoir of a family’s everyday life at a time of war. The simple storytelling reflects a period of history with which everyone is familiar, but is told here with a raw honesty which emphasises the horrors of the events which took place.
In May 1940 the family tried and failed to flee from Holland. Some went into hiding, others worked with the Resistance producing false papers, and others were transported to Westerbork transit camp. Sisters Kitty and Liesje, both in the prime of their lives, were compromised by the Nazi laws on intermarriage. War and Love is testimony of their will to survive against the odds. Many of their relatives who arrived at Westerbork were deported to Auschwitz or to Sobibor, where they were murdered.
The book also delves into the question of how the Nazis created their Jew/Non-Jew dichotomy. They wanted the question of who should count as a Jew to be clear-cut, and often this was not the case as the twists and turns of this story demonstrate.
A Cold Death in Amsterdam by Anja de Jager
Set in Amsterdam, the novel introduces Lotte Meerman, a Cold Case detective still recovering from the emotional devastation of her previous investigation. A tip-off leads Lotte to an unresolved ten-year-old murder case in which her father was the lead detective. When she discovers irregularities surrounding the original investigation that make him a suspect, she decides to cover for him. She doesn’t tell her boss about the family connection and jeopardises her career by hiding evidence. Now she has to find the real murderer before her acts are discovered, otherwise her father will go to jail and she will lose her job, the one thing in life she still takes pride in . . .
The House of Dolls by David Hewson
Anneliese Vos, sixteen-year-old daughter of Amsterdam detective, Pieter Vos, disappeared three years ago in mysterious circumstances. Her distraught father’s desperate search reveals nothing and results in his departure from the police force.
Pieter now lives in a broken down houseboat in the colourful Amsterdam neighbourhood of the Jordaan. One day, while Vos is wasting time at the Rijksmuseum staring at a doll’s house that seems to be connected in some way to the case, Laura Bakker, a misfit trainee detective from the provinces, visits him. She’s come to tell him that Katja Prins, daughter of an important local politician, has gone missing in circumstances similar to Anneliese.
In the company of the intriguing and awkward Bakker Vos finds himself drawn back into the life of a detective. A life which he thought he had left behind. Hoping against hope that somewhere will lay a clue to the fate of Anneliese, the daughter he blames himself for losing . .
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
‘In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart …’
A deeply moving and unforgettable portrait of an ordinary and yet an extraordinary teenage girl.
First published over sixty years ago, Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl has reached millions of young people throughout the world.
In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the occupation, went into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years Anne vividly describes in her diary the frustrations of living in such close quarters, and her thoughts, feelings and longings as she grows up. Her diary ends abruptly when, in August 1944, they were all betrayed.
Since its publication in 1947, The Diary of a Young Girl has been read by tens of millions of people, now reissued with a revised Foreword, Afterword, Chronology and Glossary.
Enjoy our selection of great books set in the Netherlands.
Tony for the TripFiction Team
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