The Ghost Rider by Ismail Kadare

The Ghost Rider

Ismail Kadare

A detective story with a difference. An Albanian folk legend is retold from the perspective of Stres, a medieval police inspector with few resources to hand. He is confronted with the mysterious deaths of a mother and daughter from his close knit community. Follow his thought processes and see what you can make of the mystery. Don't dismiss this as an old tale as there are striking parallels with contemporary life too.

Extract
Stres returned from the Monastery of the Three Crosses in the afternoon. His horse trotted slowly along the highway, and Stres mulled just as slowly over snatches of the long conversation he had just had with the archbishop. Tomorrow I'll have to start all over again, he said to himself. He had, of course, been working on the case without respite, and had even relieved his deputy of his other duties so that he could spend all his time sifting through the Lady Mother's archives. But now that the capital was seriously concerned at the turn of events, he was going to have to go back to square one. He would send a new circular to the inns and relay stations, perhaps promising a reward to anyone who helped find some trace of the imposter.
Parallels
  • The Cadfael books by Ellis Peters
  • The Medieval Mysteries series by Bernard Knight
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Violence
Explicit sexual content