DEKOK AND THE LOST CHILD is a book in the DeKok series by the author Baantjer. This series is set in Amsterdam, around the Warmoesstreet police station.

It is New Year’s Eve, and inspector DeKok’s relaxing evening with family and friends is interrupted by an unexpected visitor. At his front door stands a scruffy old man with a straggly beard who tells DeKok that two young men are out to murder him.

DeKok suspects he may be one of the deranged people who haunt the streets of Amsterdam, and directs the man to the police station. A few days later the man is found dead on a bench on the Noordermarkt square. Murdered. The man is identified as Joop Koedam, a burglar whose name DeKok actually recognizes from long ago. When another member of Amsterdam’s faded underworld turns up dead just days later, DeKok is certain there has to be a link. But what is that link? And will he be able to find it before more deaths occur?