The Ghost Riders of Ordebec

'People will die,' says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters.

She 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 grisly end following a visitation by the riders.

Soon after the young woman's vision a notoriously vicious and cruel man disappears. 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"

Fred Vargas

"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 "There are, it seems, two types of people: those who have discovered the quirky bliss of Fred Vargas's novels and those who don't know a good thing when they see it on the shelf.For those who haven't picked Vargas off the shelf, I highly recommend sitting on a wall with Adamsberg this spring" -- Christian House Independent on Sunday "A glorious mix of myth, quirky observation and Gallic humour" -- Mark Sanderson Sunday Telegraph "An early contender for outstanding crime novel of the year" -- Joan Smith Sunday Times