Lady Macbeth

Henri Castang #10

by Nicolas Freeling

An Henri Castang thriller with Arlette Van der Valk

A rollicking drama of satire, humour and suspense. Can you afford to miss it?

Guy Lefevre is a successful landscape gardener. He and his wife Sibille drive through the winding heights of the Vosges Mountains but at the end of a long day, they have a blistering argument and Sibille gets out of the car, never to be seen again. What happened in those mountains? Arlette Van der Valk, Sibille's ex-neighbour, is suspicious and teams up with Henri Castang to prove foul play.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

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

[Shauna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think you must either love or hate Freeling's writing style. To me it was chaotic and unreadable. Although the story is supposedly told by various characters the style was the same for each of them. I got to page 82 and gave up.
The constant references to people from Scotland as Scotch instead of Scottish was tedious and offensive. Considering the book was written in the 1980's the author should have known better!

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many writers, especially in the so-called mystery or crime novel genre, the prose -meaning the sentences and paragraphs that they put on paper - is just a vehicle to carry the plot. But there are also writers for whom the plot is a secondary concern and who focus on psychological and sociological observations or even on the writing - or perhaps I should say the language - itself. Nicolas Freeling's prose is an outstanding example of the latter approach and he is well known for his extraordinary "turn of a phrase". I believe I would recognize his writing in a blind 'Who wrote it' experiment, based on just a single paragraph. I am enclosing one of the stunning paragraphs at the end of this review. Thank God for Nicolas Freeling!

For whatever it is worth (not much), here is the setup of the plot of Mr. Freeling's "Lady Macbeth" (1988). A gardening architect Guy Lefebvre and his wife Sibille, ex-neighbors of Arlette (one of recurrent characters in Mr. Freeling's novels) leave for a business trip. In the evening Mr. Lefebvre returns alone and claims that his wife left him. Arlette suspects he has killed Sibille and asks her acquaintance, Police Commissaire Henri Castang, to undertake an unofficial investigation. The story is presented in a series of vignettes narrated by different characters.

This is Mr. Freeling's book so the plot is not very important. In fact, I am quite unhappy with the ending, where too much happens and which provides kind of a resolution. I would prefer the mystery to remain unresolved, which would better fit the overall mood of the novel. Also, when one considers what "really" happened, the answer to the question "did he or didn't he?" does not seem important.

There are so many wonderful things in the novel: stunningly vivid portrayal of Europe, with the events taking place in France, close to the German border, among mostly British people. Phrases in French, German, and Spanish frequently appear in the text. One can learn so much about various quirks of the French judiciary system. All characterizations are superb, and the author is fond of puns and word games (I love the word "akshally"). My perhaps favorite twist is that one of the main characters is a British professor, Dr. Davidson. Davidson happens to be Mr. Freeling's birth name.

An extraordinary book, spoiled for me, by the presence of a definite and hardly satisfying ending.

Four and a quarter stars.

Here's just one sample of the Freeling-style (also free-style!) paragraphs (to me this is Prose with a capital 'P' and exclamation marks):

"I was slouching along the verge when I saw a little old man, a 'petit vieux' approaching me in a brisk hobble: the liveliness caught my eye. Beautifully dressed up, cap à pie. A check overcoat looking new and loud - it was a lowering chilly day. Twinkling polished shoes, shirt with a modish sporty cut and a rich silk tie; sharp-pressed legs. On top a curlybrimmed hat with a fresh ribbon. He looked highly rakish, helping himself along with a cane that was newly varnished, had chased silver bands and a bone crook. As he came nearer he was still older than I had thought; eighty, the prehistoric saurian look of an old Mexican peasant - no; birdy and brilliant, the rapid eye of a cultivated Jewish gentleman."

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best of Freeling's Henri Castang series, but none of his books come without reservations. A 4-star for me because of its originality, and the way that the first 80% of the book keeps up the suspense of whether there was a crime and who might have committed it. But could be rated as low as 2 stars because it features all the usual Freeling foibles, weaknesses, and handful of unsavoury passages.
Aside from the well done suspense, there's a nice display of narrative by several different characters; some reviewers have found this confusing but I thought the technique was carried off fairly well. The bigger problem with the narration by different characters is that they all speak in the same elliptical and gruffly opinionated voice as Castang, which is to say they all speak with Freeling's voice. They are also all equally prone to making cultural references or improbably offering literary quotations. The one halfway exception is Castang's wife Vera; she is given a more muddled and intuitive way of thinking but is equally prone to delivering quotations. That brings up the big issue of Castang's (and possibly Freeling's??) attitudes toward and comments about women. A few of the remarks in the book tend toward the appalling, and I'm surprised that I don't see comments in other reviews that I've looked at. Then there's Castang's rather dodgy comment about the mental and physical attributes of an apparently black person from the Caribbean.
All that can be a lot to accept for the sake of a unique (if at times almost impenetrable) writing style. If you can put up with the defects and idiosyncrasies, you get work that's refreshingly different from the manicured industrial output of a lot of recent best sellers and mediocre piecework. There are even occasional passages of nice description, and psychological observations that are sometimes persuasive or at least intriguing, along with other psychological observations that are part of Freeling's obstinately personal repertoire.
A reread after about 30 years, and I found myself more critical this time, although still fairly well entertained.

[Ivory Castle · Rating 3 out of 5]

What started out as a simple drive into the mountains turns ends up with one person missing. Sibille storms off after an argument with her husband Guy and is not seen again. Her husband seems relatively accepting of her disappearance and makes no attempt to find her.
Arlette is the widow of Van Der Valk and Sibille’s ex neighbour. Six months pass and certain something must have happened to Sibille she enlists the help of Henri Castang (a former colleague of her husband) to uncover the truth. An investigation is launched and their enquiries uncover something unexpected and dangerous.
This author was well known for the Van der Valk detective series and this is the 10th book in the Henri Castang series.
This story seemed more of a criminal dissection of people’s personalities and lives than a novel although thats not necessarily a bad thing, more a statement than a criticism. Also I felt I had to concentrate to keep up with the change in characters/chapters and backtracked a few times. This book did not appeal to me and that is no reflection on the author’s skill.
A digital copy of this book was obtained from the publisher via NetGalley and my review freely provided.

[Madison Oster · Rating 2 out of 5]

**I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so choppy and so full of random, thesaurus-found words like "otiose" and "adumbrations" that I found it to be unreadable and could not bring myself to finish it. I felt like I was back studying my GRE textbook. The sentence structure stayed simple and it made it impossible to get lost in the story. For example:

"He used the contours with great skill. It's acid ground...The sandstone is a dark red, most attractive. Guy had a lot of rich clients in Germany. One saw a good deal of him, and we often talked...A withdrawn person and not very sociable."

I know that disjointed sentences like this can add an element to storytelling, but not when it's drawn out for this long. Dialog throughout the book is written in this style, with characters stating short sentences back and forth, no emphasis or descriptions provided. I'm only giving it two stars because I could see glimpses of good writing every now and then, and the story idea was good. However, as a whole I do not recommend this book.

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

The description of this book sounded very interesting, so I ordered it. Perhaps I should have known better having had a negative experience with the last Nicolas Freeling novel I read. I thought perhaps it was a fluke, so I decided to try it again.

How sad that it happened again. Mr. Freeling’s writing style is so obtuse and wandering that I just couldn’t follow it very well. He seemed to go off on unrelated and uninteresting tangents and I just got tired of them.

I apologize that I did not care for his book. Although his writing style might interest some, it was just too much work for me. I must agree with another reviewer who said that the most interesting thing about this book was the description.

I want to thank NetGalley and Ipso Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

[Tina Stringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book by the author of the Van der Valk novels, I watched those on tv and so was intrigued to read a book by him, although this involves a different character.
It involves the investigation into the disappearance of Sibille Lefebvre, which is carried out by Henri Castang and Arlette Davidson, Van der Valk's wife, who remarried after his death, and who runs an enquiry bureau. Sibille disappears during a drive through a mountainous region. There is no activity on her bank account or credit card, and no communication from her, so it is assumed that she is probably dead.
The chapters swap around between different characters which helps keep the story moving, but I did find it heavy going in parts, I think that fans of the Van der Valk tv series will enjoy the book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Ipso books for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Mystica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guy is a very successful landscape architect. Sybille his wife is administrator cum excellence. It is she that does the nitty gritty in their business. An argument like any other, on a deserted road Sybille gets out of the car, storms off and is never seen again. Two people do not accept the story and file a report against Guy. It is Guy himself who is his own worst enemy. His laid back attitude, his telling of the facts in an extremely factual way, does not endear him to authorities or friends alike who do not know what to make of this.

The resolution was not for me, quite right. An unresolved ending may have been better but the writing, the story told in chapters by different people all added interest to a mystery.

[GeraniumCat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicolas Freeling was an excellent writer of detective fiction, particularly well-known for his Van der Walk series (recently re-adapted for television, very satisfactorily, and I hope there will be another series), and the books featuring the French detective Henri Castang, while less well-known, are equally good. They also provide a fascinating insight into France's investigative differences. Lady Macbeth brings together Henri Castang and Van der Walk's widow Arlette as a team investigating the disappearance of a woman in the Vosges mountains. I first read it many years ago, and appreciated its darkness and depth, and have very much enjoyed revisiting it.

[Jannelies (living between hope and fear) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Because I had great difficulties in finding my way in this book, I decided to read some of the reviews of Mr. Freelings books. I choose this book from Netgalley because of the interesting desciption. For me, the only interesting thing in this book remains the description. I cannot get used to Freeling's writing, it is much too long-winded for me (says someone who loves Dickens...) and therefore I did not get a feeling for the story.
No doubt Nicolas Freeling is a wonderful author, who writes wonderful books, but sadly not for me.

[Karina · Rating 2 out of 5]

The storyline is not a bad idea (a woman goes missing after a quarrel with her husband and her neighbours ask Henry Castang to look into her disappearance )but due to the fact that every chapter is told by a different character makes it difficult to keep one focused. The whole story tended to wander. And I can't say that Henry Castang,the police inspector, actually charmed me or kept my interest.
www.booksdogsandcats.wordpress.com

[Maria Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange

The author has an incredibly quirky style which I found, by turns, interesting, confusing, irritating and at times, fascinating. I realised however, in the end, that I simply had no clue what it was about and how the ending happened!

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this pretty opaque and slow going—until the last 50 pages when everything shifted and it rushed to a startling but believable conclusion.

[Hugh Dunnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been on a bit of a ‘golden age’ crime bent recently so the offer of a free late Eighties detective novel from the good people at Crime Classics Advance Readers Club left me with mixed feelings – always glad to get a free book! But disappointed that it wasn’t something a little older.

However, the premise of the story sounded good and I liked the location and I have always enjoyed the titles provided to me by Crime Classics, so once I got over the disappointment that the book was only 38 years old(!) I settled in for a good read. But now I really was disappointed. The characters were not interesting and none seemed to speak with any distinctive voice. And what could have been a genuine mystery about the cause of the disappearance of ‘Lady Macbeth’ just left me feeling that I didn’t care whether the disappeared woman was dead or alive.

But the biggest problem with the novel was the structure: the novel is presented as a ‘factual case history’ written by an academic with a view to its use as a ‘source material for graduate students’, and as such is presented with each chapter being the story as it progresses as told by one of the protagonists with editorial notes as required by the supposed author… the construction of an entire narrative using the voices of all protagonists is a rare thing and is certainly a demonstration of the writer’s skill but although the objective is to present the feel of real people speaking in a natural way, much of each narrator’s story too frequently runs to near stream of consciousness with unorthodox punctuation and frequently bizarre grammar and so as a novel is difficult to read, feels overdrawn and overblown and indeed is often just plain boring. A novel way to structure a story indeed but for me a novel way to suck the interest out of that story.

The long and short of it is that because this was a free copy for review I made the effort to slog on to the end to allow my review to be fair, full and honest as I can make it. But honestly, had this not been from Crime Classics Advance Readers Club I would have packed it in about a quarter of the way through.

Maybe this is not the usual format of a Nicholas Freeling novel, maybe the rest of the Castang series read like ‘normal’ novels. I can only hope so, particularly as I have another Castang novel on my shelf to be read. But to be honest, it is doing a fine job of propping the other books up and I think I am not in a rush to put an end to its functional use. Maybe one day…

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I very rarely give a bad review, but unfortunately this is book, for me, was pretty terrible. I had real trouble finishing it as I found the book contained a series of words with no really connection to a story.
I'm sure some people will find it very readable but not for me, written in the first person it was very wordy.

[Clive Willcocks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately I could not get it to this book and gave up when I got to about 25% read. I will try the book again at a latter stage. Can't wait to read the next book.