title: The Running Dutchman: Confessions of a Wanderer
author:  Diederik van Hoogstraten 
description: Diederik van Hoogstraten, a Dutch journalist, fell in love with New York, then moved on to California to settle in Los Angeles. He writes and runs where ever he goes. He is The Running Dutchman. His next book (scheduled to appear in 2015) will be about an American-Dutch World War II survivor. In the meantime he has translated The Cynja, an illustrated children's book about cyber security. As a freelance journalist Diederik also writes for NRC Handelsblad and Elsevier Magazine, both in Amsterdam, and the Belgian Standaard. He was born and raised in the Netherlands, and received his Master's degree from Columbia University's Journalism School in New York.
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  ![](Images/image00123.gif)
  
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  **FLYING DUTCH**
  
  Tom Holt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](Images/image00124.gif)
  
  CHAPTER ONE**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It’s always a little startling to hear your name in a public place, and
  Vanderdecker froze. The beer in his glass didn’t, and the froth splashed his
  nose. He put the glass down and listened.
  
  ‘The story of the Flying Dutchman...’ the man opposite had said. Slowly, so as
  not to be seen to be staring, Vander­decker looked round. His profession had
  trained him to take in all the information he needed to enable him to form a
  judge­ment in one swift glance, and what he saw was a plump young man wearing
  a corduroy jacket and a pink shirt with a white collar. Trousers slightly too
  tight. Round, steel-rimmed spectacles. Talking at a girl at least seven years
  his junior. American. Vanderdecker wasn’t much taken with what he saw, but he
  listened anyway.
  
  ‘Most people think,’ said the plump young man, ‘that Wagner invented the story
  of the Eying Dutchman. Not true.’
  
  ‘Really?