I've had a lot of free time lately and 0 energy for doing anything physical. So I've been reading when I get bored doing other silly stuff and have the mental focus to handle it!
DE SHUILKELDER by Tomas Ross (44 pages)
This is mostly in the present tense, but has a few pages in the past tense. The past tense words are the simpler verbs though, so it's quite readable even if you only know a little about past tenses. The title literally means "The Shelter Celler", but I guess we'd say "The Bombshelter". This is a short story, not a novel (and doesn't try to be a novel or feel like a shortened novel).
It felt like I was reading a Stephen King short story, which I think is a good thing :-P It had a similar dark and twisted aspect, and seemed very well-written, despite the linguistic constraints. This story left me wanting to read more by Thomas Ross.
DETECTIVE ORHAN EN HET VERMISTE MEISJE by Sadik Yemni (108 pages)
It means "Detective Orhan and the Missing Girl". Another great read. I lucked out, getting two in a row! This one is more of a novel, and all in present tense, aside from characters talking about the past. I understood almost everything while reading it at B1 level.
The author is a Turkish born Dutchman. Almost all of the main characters are Turkish, but the chicks aren't stupid passive foreigners. It was refreshing after some of the books I read earlier :-P I think it was also interesting in that it briefly addressed cultural issues of non-Western immigrants and their Dutch-born children. And that basically they're just Dutch people that happen to have foreign grandparents and cousins.
The plot was good and interesting. Some parts were a bit unrealistic, like the detective running around with guns all the time and shooting up neighborhoods (and bad guys) without being noticed or caught. But overall a solid murder/disappearance mystery with a plausible yet non-obvious ending.
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