The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas
JOINT-WINNER OF THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER `People will die,’ says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters. She has been standing in blazing sunshine for more than an hour, and refuses to speak to anyone besides Commissaire Adamsberg. Her daughter has seen a vision: ghostly horsemen who target the most nefarious characters in Normandy. Since the middle ages there have been stories of murderers, rapists, those with serious crimes on their conscience, meeting a grizzly end following a visitation by the riders. Soon after the young woman’s vision a notoriously cruel man disappears, and the local police dismiss the matter as superstition. Although the case is far outside his jurisdiction, Adamsberg agrees to investigate the strange happenings in a village terrorised by wild rumours and ancient feuds.
"This latest outing for the offbeat Commissaire Adamsberg is [Vargas'] best" * Independent *
"After decades in which crime fiction in French was dominated by the Belgian author Georges Simenon, it has an indisputable new star in Fred Vargas" -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times *
"Vargas depicts brilliantly a rural community riven with superstition, where class distinctions have existed for centuries" * The Times *
"Her novels about the kindly, quixotic Commissaire Adamsberg are unique, presenting us with a France that resembles Simenon’s in its concreteness but with a fantastical, even surreal, twist: werewolves, vampires and, in her latest novel, an army of ghosts on horseback… Her work is like a baked Camembert among the smorgasbord of chilly Scandinavian realism that dominates the foreign crime fiction market here, delicious comfort food for the sophisticated palate" -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph *
"Adamsberg is as delightful, absurd and irritating as ever. One of Vargas’s best" -- Marcel Berlins * Times *
"After decades in which crime fiction in French was dominated by the Belgian author Georges Simenon, it has an indisputable new star in Fred Vargas" -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times *
"Vargas depicts brilliantly a rural community riven with superstition, where class distinctions have existed for centuries" * The Times *
"Her novels about the kindly, quixotic Commissaire Adamsberg are unique, presenting us with a France that resembles Simenon’s in its concreteness but with a fantastical, even surreal, twist: werewolves, vampires and, in her latest novel, an army of ghosts on horseback… Her work is like a baked Camembert among the smorgasbord of chilly Scandinavian realism that dominates the foreign crime fiction market here, delicious comfort food for the sophisticated palate" -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph *
"Adamsberg is as delightful, absurd and irritating as ever. One of Vargas’s best" -- Marcel Berlins * Times *
Fred Vargas was born in Paris in 1957. A historian and archaeologist by profession, she is now a bestselling novelist. Her books have sold over 10 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 45 languages.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781846557361 |
| ISBN 10 | 1846557364 |
| Title | The Ghost Riders of Ordebec |
| Author | Fred Vargas |
| Series | Commissaire Adamsberg |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2013-03-07 |
| Number of pages | 368 |
| Prizes | Winner of CWA International Dagger 2013 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |