Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (USA 2024)

From the Publisher:
A British judge and a naked corpse put French inspector Henri Castang on delicate, dangerous ground in this mystery from the Edgar Award-winning author.

When a local businessman's car is stolen, he's more concerned about what's inside-the body of his just-deceased grandmother. Then Parisian police Insp. Henri Castang is called to investigate the mysterious appearance of a woman's body found in a car. But just when it seems like his latest case is about to solve itself, Henri discovers a baffling murder wrapped up in a simmering crisis of international relations.

On holiday with his family in France, a British high court judge found a naked corpse in the boot of his Rolls Royce. Having made the discovery upon arriving for dinner at a three-star Michelin restaurant, more than a few reputations are on the line. Now Castang must unravel a web of grim coincidences, lies, and political intrigue before another victim gets the boot.

This mystery from the author of the popular Inspector Van Der Valk novels combines "solid police work" with "the ever-surprising Freeling prose" for a cunning tale of crime detection set in the City of Light (Kirkus Reviews).

"Freeling writes like no one else." -- Los Angeles Times
"A joy to read." - The Times Literary Supplement

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. A Henri Castang Mystery. Early Bird Books / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504092258 (August, 2024), 316 p., $24.99.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (USA 2023)

From the Publisher:
A British judge and a naked corpse put French inspector Henri Castang on delicate, dangerous ground in this mystery from the Edgar Award-winning author.

"Freeling writes like no one else." -- Los Angeles Times
"A joy to read." - The Times Literary Supplement

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. A Henri Castang Mystery. Early Bird Books / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504088206 (May, 2023), eBook, 2488 KB (ca. 316 p.), $14.99

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (UK 2001)

From the Publisher:
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.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. A Henri Castang Mystery. House of Stratus, ISBN: 1842328549 (April, 2001), 290 p., £6.99.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (UK 1988)

From the Publisher:
The nude body of a young girl is discovered in the boot of a Rolls-Royce which belongs to a highly respectable English High Court judge. And Inspector Castang was hoping for a quiet day in the office.

'The plot is excellent, and I personally grow to like Castang more and more' -- Edmund Crispin in the Sunday Times
'A clever, well-plotted and well-characterised whodunnit' -- Sunday Express
'His best since the high old Van der Valk days. Illuminating study in rapid idiosyncratic style of policeishness during two murder inquiries' -- The Times
'There can be no doubt that Mr Freeling is a genuinely masterly novelist' -- Sunday Times

Cover photograph by John Knights

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. A Castang Mystery. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1988, ISBN: 0140050922, 251 p., £2.95.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (USA 1980)

From the Publisher:
"The plot is excellent, and I personally grow to like Castang more and more." -- Edmund Crispin
The daughter of an English High Court Justice vacationing in France discovers that someone has placed the corpse of a young woman, naked and strangled, in the back seat of the family Rolls Royce. Is it a macabre joke or a curious attempt to implicate a distinguished English jurist? Henri Castang is called in to investigate, and the plot thickens...

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. A Henri Castang Suspense Novel. Vintage Books, ISBN: 0394745523 (February, 1980), 313 p., $1.95.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (USA 1978)

From the Publisher:
"The plot of The Night Lords is excellent, and I personally grow to like Castang more and more." -- Edmund Crispin
Few mystery novels have been praised as highly as Nicolas Freeling's have been (see the back of this jacket). And no author has dared to change so boldly in mid-career as did Freeling when he killed off his highly popular Inspector Van der Valk of Amsterdam and undertook the challenging task of beginning to work on a new hero, Henri Castang, a French police inspector who lives and works in a large provincial city. Three of the Castang novels have been published so far; The Night Lords is the fourth and, we feel, the most intriguing.

The case begins when the daughter of an English High Court justice vacationing in France discovers that someone has placed the corpse of a young woman, naked and strangled, in the back seat of the family Rolls Royce. Whether this is a macabre joke or a curious attempt to implicate a distinguished English jurist is at first unclear. Then the plot thickens...

The Night Lords shows Freeling at his strongest -- a complex, psychologically intriguing story flavored with witty and biting depictions of life in today's prosperous (and corrupt) Western Europe.

Nicolas Freeling is at work on a major new mystery, which we will be able to announce next year.

Nicolas Freeling was born in London and raised in France and England. After his military service in World War II, he traveled extensively throughout Europe, working as a professional cook in a number of hotels and restaurants. His first book, Love in Amsterdam, was published in 1961. Since then, he has written seventeen novels and two non-fiction works. His most recent books have been Gadget, a novel of suspense, and the third Henri Castang novel, Sabine. Mr. Freeling was awarded a golden dagger by the Crime Writers in 1963, the Grand Prix de Roman Policier in 1965, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers Association in 1966.

Mr. Freeling lives in France with his wife and their five children.

Jacket illustration by Dan Brown

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. Pantheon Books, ISBN: 0394502817 (October, 1978), 251 p., $7.95.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords (UK 1978)

From the Publisher:
After the ten Van der Valk novels, and the fascinating 'in between' books, this is the fourth novel about Henri Castang and the police of his European city. The Night Lords was the name given by Venetians to their Police Judiciaire: a sinister lot sometimes. When a High Court Judge and his family, holidaying in France, find a naked female corpse (goodlooking, previously) in the boot of their Rolls, Castang has a horrible time. This is a very funny book, and the humour not all gallows. Nicolas Freeling and the police look at both English and French legal institutions -- that, though, is serious.

THE NIGHT LORDS
'His best since the high old Van der Valk days.' -- H.R.F. Keating, The Times
'The plot is excellent, and I personally grow to like Castang more and more.' -- Edmund Crispin, The Sunday Times

Nicolas Freeling lives in Strasbourg, and the Vosges hills. Born in London, but a European for many years now. Everything he has done, like his books, has been ahead of his time. The world perhaps is catching up... His wife was born in Holland; he has five children. With every year that passes, he says, he wants fewer possessions -- but more books.

Nicolas Freeling: The Night Lords. A Novel. London: William Heinemann, 1978, ISBN: 0434271837, 251 p., £4.90.