Policeman turned crime writer Appie Baantjer has died after a short illness, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.

Baantjer worked as an Amsterdam policeman and detective for forty years before embarking on a more lucrative career as a writer.
The successful television series ‘Baantjer’ was based on his books of which more than seven million have been sold. Baantjer’s particular brand of detective story owes much to his long stint at Warmoesstraat police station in Amsterdam’s red light district during the 1950s.
Baantjer was 86.