For anybody looking forward to reading more about Hauke, the Veil-Walker character introduced in my debut “Wandelaar van de Duisternis” novel “Broken Shards”, here is the prologue for the prequel story “Ghost Ship”.

Het Parool, February 16, 2021:

Skaters Fall through Ice – Rescued by Ghost Ship

Ice skaters in Amsterdam taking advantage of a cold snap that froze the city’s famous canals have been rescued after falling through the thin crust into the frigid waters below.

Onlookers at the Keizersgracht used hockey sticks and ropes to help pull several people out of the freezing canal after the sheet of ice they had been skating on cracked and broke.

Meanwhile, bystanders on the Prinsengracht attempted to save two people who fell through the ice and disappeared below the surface. The pair were believed drowned, but were subsequently found on the deck of a nearby houseboat, claiming that they had been rescued from the freezing canal by a swimmer from a ghost boat.

“I thought I was dead for certain when I went under the ice,” said 19-year-old Vilma Olsen from Denmark, “Then I felt somebody dragging me back to the surface. He called for somebody on a ship to lower a ladder, and helped me climb to safety on board before going back into the icy water for my brother Leif.”

“They gave us blankets to warm up again, and took us to one of the nearby houseboats where they left us on the deck. Then they just seemed to vanish.” Lief told reporters. “We called to the rescuers on the canal, who were still searching for us, to let them know we were safe. But it was strange because none of them saw the ship that saved us.”

The cold spell briefly made it possible to skate on a small section of Amsterdam’s canal system for the first time since 2018. People skated and walked on a stretch of ice along the canals between Brouwersgracht and Leliegracht before growing cracks forced most to solid ground.

Locals have been warned not to skate on the canals.