A Dwarf Kingdom

by Nicolas Freeling

Overview

The final Henri Castang mystery confirms the Edgar award–winning author’s “mastery of character and imagery in a superlative study of people and power (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

After the murder of dear friends and an attack on his wife, Vera, Inspector Henri Castang is finished with life as an investigator. As the couple settles into an inherited cliff-top home in Biarritz, Castang is just starting to wonder if retirement suits him when his only grandchild is kidnapped, sending him on a terrifying chase that is all too personal. With the local police stunted by politics, it’s up to Castang to catch this perp—and he will. Even if it’s the last thing he ever does . . .

Praise for Nicolas Freeling:

“In depth of characterization, command of language and breadth of thought, Mr. Freeling has few peers when it comes to the international policier.” —The New York Times

“Nicolas Freeling . . . liberated the detective story from page-turning puzzler into a critique of society and an investigation of character.” —The Daily Telegraph

“Freeling rewards with his oblique, subtly comic style.” —Publishers Weekly

“Freeling writes like no one. . . . He is one of the most literate and idiosyncratic of crime writers.” —Los Angeles Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504090223
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Series:	The Henri Castang Mysteries
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	281
Sales rank:	895,950
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Nicolas Freeling (1927–2003) was a British crime novelist best known for the Van Der Valk detective series. After serving in the military and working as a hotel and restaurant cook throughout Europe, he began writing his first novel, Love in Amsterdam. Freeling’s novel King of the Rainy Country received the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Among his other literary awards are the Gold Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association and France’s Grand Prix de Roman Policier.

Editorial Reviews

With a clever twist of plot...this is a fitting farewell to the Castangs.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Gold Dagger and Edgar winner (for The King of Rainy Country), Freeling offers readers an example of his best work in the final appearance of Brussels police inspector Henri Castang. After the brutal murder of old friends Gerald and Mathilde Gutierrez and the attempted rape of his wife, Vera, Castang declares "End of Watch" and retires. Traveling to Biarritz, he and Vera visit Adrien Richard, Castang's former chief who is dying of cancer. Richard unexpectedly bequeaths his cliff-top home to Vera. Their decision to keep the house runs them afoul of the dwarves of the title. These are, in Castang's lexicon, those with such influence at high levels of society and government that only a word from them can cause an "absence of zeal" in investigations that might reveal their activities. When Castang's granddaughter is kidnapped, he becomes convinced that "dwarfish greed for dwarfgold" is behind the disappearance: their cliff-top property is the last link in a large land development deal. The lack of initiative on the part of the authorities convinces him that the kidnapper is someone prominent in Biarritz. Castang turns to a subversive group fighting against "inhuman cruelties and naked, cynical exploitation" for help. Capping a series of 25 years, this tale confirms Freeling's mastery of character and imagery in a superlative study of people and power. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In Henri Castang's (The Seacoast of Bohemia, Mysterious, 1995) final adventure, he and wife Vera retire after the gruesome deaths of two dear friends in Bruxelles. They wind up in a cliff-top house (in Biarritz) bequeathed to Vera by another policeman. Bad luck pursues them: an unknown would-be purchaser of their property, apparently tied to the dead policeman and a previous investigation, kidnaps Castang's grandchild. Dense, literate prose, often with rococo constructions, understated wit, and thoughtful diversions; for Castang followers.

Library Journal

Freeling's highly literate, if offbeat, mysteries make for stimulating reading. His latest, the professed last hurrah in the highly touted Henri Castang series, is no exception. Castang is on the verge of retirement, having successfully negotiated the shoals of a politically tenuous career with the Paris police. He and his wife, Vera, are enjoying a well-deserved vacation in Biarritz when his former boss dies and leaves Vera a house overlooking the Bay of Biscay. Castang takes this as a sign from heaven that he and Vera can retire in peace, especially when his daughter arrives with her new husband and baby daughter. But, of course, wherever Castang goes, trouble is certain to follow. Someone badly desires Vera's inherited house, and when she refuses the anonymous offer, things turn ugly. For readers who want to be challenged and inspired, Freeling, as usual, offers up champagne and caviar for the mental palate.

Emily Melton

"In the depth of characterization, command of language, and the breath of thought, Mr. Freeling has few peers when it comes to the international policer." -- The New York Times Book Review

Marilyn Stacio

Henri Castang's last case—Freeling is regrettably firm about that—is drenched in thoughts of age and death. "Every time I see a friend of mine he's dead," grumbles the aging Castang (The Seacoast of Bohemia, 1995, etc.), kicked at once upstairs and into retirement from the European Community's Police Judiciaire. The latest victims of Castang's curse are his old friends Jerry and Mathilde Gutierrez, slain by a pair of small- time robbers as Castang and his wife Vera watch helplessly, and Castang's old chief Adrien Richard, who's died without children and left his little house in Biarritz to Vera. Themselves bereft of domestic and professional ties, the Castangs, those good Europeans, settle into Richard's home as into a pair of old shoes. But a high-pressure developer has his eye on the property, and when Castang shrugs off his cash tender, the developer resorts to sterner measures: Castang and Vera discover they're grandparents just in time to have their granddaughter snatched from under their noses. Since the local Judiciaire chief has been warned to proceed very carefully with the case, lest the baby perchance be found, it's up to Castang and a motley assembly of Basque locals to spirit her out of the sepulchral Empress Hotel.

Crime and detection are submerged beneath a transcendentally stylish meditation on mortality that makes Castang's farewell almost unbearably poignant.

Kirkus Reviews