(De Bezige Bij, 2018, 312 pages)

Travellers have roamed Europe for the past million years, from the mysterious homo antecessor whose footprints have been found on the coast of England to the driver on today’s motorways. Under every mark lies an older one, under every paved road a donkey trail or wagon rut, under every footpath the tracks of ancient hunters or their prey.

(Thomas Rap, 2020, 128 pages)

The routine on board the Texel, a lightship – essentially a floating lighthouse – is disturbed when the cook smuggles a live billy-goat on board to use in a stew. The animal’s arrival leads to tension among the crew and ultimately causes the shift to end in tragedy.

(Thomas Rap, 2021, 336 pages)

In The Boundless River Deen does not tell the story of the Rhine directly, from source to sea, but as a current fed by many tributaries. Meandering from the mighty hippos that once grazed on the river’s banks millions of years ago to the exhausted salmon that saw their habitat slowly change, from the girl from ancient Steinheim to the Roman general Corbulo, to the young Goethe and the North Sea fisherman Kommer Tanis – Deen tells stories in which the Rhine is ever present, at times in the lead role, at others as an extra. He shows how, since the beginning of time, the river has connected and divided, terrified, consoled, sustained and engulfed.

(Alfabet, 2022, 256 pages)

When his German publisher requested a thriller from Matthijs Deen, already known for his books on the Wadden Sea and the Rhine, he more than rose to the challenge with The Dutchman.

(Alfabet, 2023, 320 pages)

At the request of his German publisher, Mare, Mathijs Deen – known for his books on the Wadden Sea and the Rhine – wrote his successful thriller The Dutchman. Now there is a second book about Dutch-German border region detective, Inspector Liewe Cupido. Like The Dutchman, The Diver is largely set at sea, with divers who loot shipwrecks playing a major role.