Question about The Dutch Shoe Mystery

[Erland Gadde]

I just finished the reading of "The Dutch Shoe Mystery" in Swedish translation. In this edition, there is a peculiarity I want to ask about:

In the beginning of Part II, before Chapter XIX, there is an italicized section, containing a quote from a speech which was allegedly held by a Swedish criminologist at the Swedish Police Academy in 1920, where the criminologist compares crime solving with timber-log-driving in northern Sweden.

Now, it seems peculiar that E.Q. should choose to include, or even know about, such a little known speech from such a small country like Sweden. So I wonder: Is there really such a quote in the original English edition, or is it an invention, or an adjustment, of the Swedish translator?


Grateful if someone knows...

Erland Gadde, Luleå, Sweden

[Kurt Sercu]

It is included in the original. Dr. Gustav Goeteborg is listed as the author. From the address to the recruits of the Stockholm Police Academy on November 2. 1920
The book has several quotes by international "authorities" (Austrian, Australian), so your Swedish translator is left unblemished

[Hakan Andersson]

Since Goeteborg (spelled Göteborg (or Gothenburg in English)) actually is Sweden's second biggest town and not a name this is a little bit funny. I doubt there is anybody called that in Sweden.

This kind of errors with foreign names are quite common in English litterature. The authors just picks something that "sound" right. Another usual mistake is to call Swedish persons for "Andersen" (or "Johansen", "Carlsen" and so on) when most people with that name in Sweden is called "Andersson" (with two 's' and an 'o'). Danish and Norwegian people mostly use the 'e' instead of the 'o'.

[Hakan Andersson]

I have just reread "The Dutch Shoe Mystery" (in Swedish translation) in my ongoing task of revisiting all the Queen books in chronological/published order, which I started on new years eve 2008 with "Roman Hat". (I skipped "The French Powder Mystery" since I translated it to Swedish some years ago and know that book fairly well).

"The Dutch Shoe Mystery" was one of my first EQ books I ever read, probably in 1977 or 1978 and I didn't remember much of it. Of course I recalled that it took place in a hospital, but that was just about all.

As with "Roman Hat" I found "Dutch Shoe" quite fast moving and easily read, even though it almost never leave the hospital. I read somewhere else that there is a list of characters and a map over the hospital in the English original, but they are unfortunately missing in the Swedish edition.

As often the killer's identity is somewhat of a disappointment.

Spoiler

The killer is (again) on of the less important persons in the story. And the clue about the shoe string that has been mended with (hospital ?) tape is rather "out-of-date" because it seems that it demands that tape isn't widely used in homes at that time, but primarly in hospitals. I also find it somewhat unbeliavable that a woman can so easily (although dressed as doctor with a mask over the mouth) would be taken for a male doctor. OK, the limping suggest that the witnesses are somewhat taken in by that and automatically disregard the rest of the killer's physiognomy.

Over all I find this a better book than "French Powder". The plot is somewhat "smaller" and therefore more believable. The clues are certainly presented (as we discussed earlier) more fair to the reader than those in "Roman Hat".