Lake Isle (Penguin Crime Fiction) [Import] [Paperback]

Nicolas Freeling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1980 | Series: Penguin Crime Fiction

For his first fully-fledged homicide inquiry, Castang is packed off to a dead-and-alive provincial town. Sabine Arthur, an elderly widow, had plagued the police with petty complaints about her adopted son and daughter-in-law. It was only death which made anyone take any notice. ------ "Nicolas Freeling is the most interesting crime novelist writing today" - E.F. Pardoe in the Birmingham Post --- "Freeling's sense of the bourgeois uncertainties and petty corruptions just below the carefully manicured surface of French middle-class life is unerring" - The Time Literary Supplement --- "Subtle, intelligent... a beautifully written book." - Liverpool Daily Post

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (April 24, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140047026
• ISBN-13: 978-0140047028
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top rate Freeling, March 28, 2002

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lake Isle (Hardcover)

Castang meets Sabine Arthur when she comes to share her concern that something is wrong in her household. Sabine is an elderly widow who means well, but manages to be abrasive to everyone she meets. This talent has put her at odd with her son, and Sabine is afraid. Castang believes that she has something to be afraid of, but there isn't anything the police can do for her, since nothing had yet happened.

Her death finally allows Castang to take action, as her case becomes his first fully-fledged homicide inquiry.

One of the things that Freeling does best is explore the uncertainties and games that underlie middle-class European life. His look at the tiny French town of Soulay is a masterful example of this talent. One of the best Castang books (although I still prefer the Van Der Valk series).