The Night Lords

Henri Castang #4

by Nicolas Freeling

When a high court judge holidaying in France with his family, finds a naked corpse in their Rolls Royce, Henri Castang is called to investigate. What transpires is mocking mayhem, as Castang weaves his way through deception and mystery and Freeling's wonderfully biting humour to unravel the secrets behind a thoroughly gruesome crime.

Genres: France

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Nicolas Freeling born Nicolas Davidson, (March 3, 1927 - July 20, 2003) was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels which were adapted for transmission on the British ITV network by Thames Television during the 1970s.

Freeling was born in London, but travelled widely, and ended his life at his long-standing home at Grandfontaine to the west of Strasbourg. He had followed a variety of occupations, including the armed services and the catering profession. He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of stealing some food.[citation needed]

Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association, and France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

From Wikipedia

Series:
* Van Der Valk
* Henri Castang

Reviews

[Kathy]

Because I like the Van der Valk series, I thought I would try one of the Castang books by the same author. I did enjoy the overall murder mystery, but at some points the story was choppy for me with a lot of repetitive bits of misunderstandings and/or "thinking out loud" riffs. Good resolution, though, hard fought as Castang sticks with it to the end. French/English conflicts amusing.

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[Lukasz Pruski]

My next Nicolas Freeling's novel, "The Night Lords" (1978), the fourth book in the Henri Castang' series, has again surprised me (that's the third surprise in four books - great!) The novel is as close to a police procedural as I remember Mr. Freeling ever to get. So - if one likes their crime novels for the plot - this one is highly recommended. The story is complex, interesting, and even comes with a twist. Being authored by Freeling the book is, obviously, well written, but uncharacteristically for the author (and unluckily for me) there is not much more there than just the clever plot.

The setup of the plot is hilarious, if grim. A local businessman, trying to escape high burial costs in his small town, moves the body of his just deceased grandmother to another community. Alas, his station wagon with its precious cargo gets stolen. At the same time a British family, on vacations in France, find a body of a dead woman in their Rolls-Royce. Problem solved, right? Alas, instead of the missing grandmother, they find a young and attractive woman's body. All of this happens in the parking lot that belongs to a famous three-star restaurant, whose owner is an acquaintance of Commissaire Richard, and the Commissaire has Castang investigate.

In addition to the two dead bodies, Castang gets two other suspicious deaths to probe into, one of them in the very building, where he lives with his Czech wife, Vera (Vera is pregnant now!). There are additional complications caused by the fact that the owner of the Rolls, in which the dead young lady was found, is a High Court Judge from England, Sir James Armitage. British consular authorities get involved and everybody has to be vigilant to avoid any possibility of a political scandal.

The plot is decidedly un-Freeling-like: too much is going on! My main quibble about the novel is how the author artificially injects Vera into the plot. It makes me worry that Mr. Freeling is falling into the trap - as most bestselling crime fiction writers do - of trying to "humanize" their detectives to the extent that stretches the boundaries of plausibility. My relatively high rating is mainly for the superb plot.

Three stars.

[Tina Tamman]

"Freeling is a joy to read," says the front cover of my copy. This one was not. I have previously read "Lady Macbeth" and found it good but complicated. This book has a similar complicated style - unnecessary and confusing chapter titles, oodles of names - but the biggest flaw was that I did not care for anybody. The most interesting character, albeit episodic, was Vera, detective Castang's Czech wife.
This is a book set in France, about an English family in whose car a murdered English girl is found, but other characters have non-French names: Richard, Goltz, Orthez, French, Vera. I found this confusing, kept wondering where I was each time I picked it up. Some things are explained in great detail while others are not at all. There is a lot of dialogue but Freeling's style is such that it is hard to say each time who is talking.
Not my kind of novel.

[Pat]

i enjoy this series.

I like a series that’s in another country than my own but still understandable to me. Some seem so different I can’t follow them too well. This one set in France I liked. I missed the ending until near the end. I liked the way they went at solving it. It seemed realistic. I shall read more.

[MR JOHN D T MILLAR]

Intelligent and pacy crime fiction

Very well written and thoughtful/observant about both society and character
Freeling invites you to sympathise - but not necessarily care - for the main actors in his drama

[Lauren]

Took a little while to get into, but enyoable.

[Tracy]

I have liked Freeling's books in the past, but this one was just too abstruse and overly wordy. There were too many things going on, too many details.

[Michelle Wilson]

I’ve stopped, I’ll come back but I now find this too subtle for me. Non sequitur abounds it seems.

[Maria]

Interesante y bien llevado

[Russeller]

Dated, but a decent read on a plane.

[Jennifer Fehling]

Sort of interesting but dialogue became annoying after a while

[Rachel]

I found the writing style hard to get in to, but the story line is great and I especially loved the deeper artistic thread running through it.