Fritz to the Front

I think the accent was unnecessary. we get he is Dutch. felt kind of phony.

Short Easy listening story. Narrator had good Dutch accent, funny at times, but not good Irish accent. As it was difficult to understand but all in all a good read.

What a cool book! So much adventure and a fun detective besides. Fritz is a Dutch detective (although at one point he is said to be German) travelling from Western America on the trail of a notorious smuggler. The trail leads to the East coast. As he travels, he meets a young lady travelling alone, and is able to give her assistance. Later, as they are both at the same hotel, he is asked to come to a secluded place to be a witness to her marriage. He sees her go off with her intended. The instructions he was given are followed and indeed they are married. The next day, he meets an older man very frustrated. It turns out that he is a prominent man from the west. His daughter is missing with a great deal of his money. Soon he engages Fritz to look for her. From there, many adventures happen, including a haunted house, a bit of ventriloquism and a severed head,a somewhat mad girl, a ruthless criminal gang, capture, a Countess, aiding escapes and being set adrift on a boat hands tied and having no oars. The detective stumbles in and out of trouble at regular intervals, all the while talking over with himself just what is happening. This habit, along with his imperfect English, brings a bit of humour to the story. It helps to lighten the mood of the book, much needed when other scenes and events are often quite gruesome. I don’t think I have ever read a book anything like this centred on a foreign man with a real stamp of the West investigating criminals and missing persons...and at times playing practical jokes by using ventriloquism. It would be great if there would have been more books starring this unusual detective. The reading was very well done.