reviews: Night Falls on Damascus

Kirkus Reviews
 No, there never really was peace in the Middle East. Six months into his tenure as Chief of the Damascus Prefecture, Nikolai Faroun has gone through four assistants, been abandoned by his German girlfriend and his cat, and been told by his superior that he has five days to solve the case of the corpse in the murky Barada River before the case is handed over to his rival Philomel Durac, who handles state security for the Surete. Why was beautiful Vera Tamiri sliced up, weighted down in a burlap bag and dumped in the river, a fate previously reserved for traitors? Did one of her many lovers kill her in a jealous rage? Was it her gambling debts, the shame she brought to her brother Umar and the family honor, someone bent on avenging matters dating back to King Faisal's 1918 Land Trust? Or did the answer lie in a ledger Vera kept that seemed to implicate the five warring Damascus political/religious factions? A mute child at the Hotel Nurredine, where Vera and her lovers trysted, helps identity three suspects. Although one confesses, it's torture, not truth, that makes him speak. Undeterred, Faroun soldiers on, withstanding enmities begun 2,000 years ago that fuel the area's current political chaos. Highland ([author or] Ghost Eater, not reviewed) is the perfect guide to understanding just how wrong-headed the Westerners have been about Levantine politics.

Publishers Weekly
 Set in 1930s French-occupied Syria, Highland's engrossing third novel (after 2003's Ghost Eater) centers on the efforts of Nikolai Faroun, "chief of the Damascus Prefecture," to solve the murder of Vera Tamiri, a beautiful, modern woman from a prominent Damascus family. That a jealous lover is the culprit is only the most obvious explanation, and Faroun suspects more complicated motives behind the demise of a philanthropic woman working for social change in a politically volatile city. His inquiries disturb the unwritten rules and double standards especially regarding women of the many closed societies uneasily coexisting in Damascus. Born to a Maronite Christian father from Beirut and a Russian mother, Faroun is an unusual protagonist. While some of the murky intrigue is hard to keep track of, it adds to the sense of mystery. (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

John Broussard
I Love a Mystery Newsletter
 Middle Eastern countries are hardly known for their peaceful ambience and this one, now invaded and occupied by a Western power, is no different.  Terrorists/insurgents roam the countryside, roadside ambushes are commonplace, bombings a regular occurrence, power outages the order of the day.  The occupiers have no understanding of the "ragheads" they are trying to govern.  And the quisling bureaucracy they've put in place is riddled with corrupt and incompetent sycophants.  During these last terrible years of the occupation, France -- the occupying power -- is fighting a losing battle in the midst of sectarian violence.  Curfews, army patrols, arrests without charges, and the wide use of torture produce no positive results, and the French simply continue to wonder why the natives do not appreciate the blessings of democracy.  In the midst of all this chaos, a new chief of the Damascus police is appointed to replace the one killed by a car bomb.  Replacement Nikolai Faroun -- that rare creature, an honest policeman -- is now investigating the gruesome murder of Vera Tamiri.  Is it a crime of passion, or is money behind it?  Or perhaps it is merely one more meaningless death in the charnel house that the Syrian capital of the nineteen-thirties has become.  But Faroun continues to investigate, especially when pressures are brought to bear on him to desist. Highland has woven a complex plot set against this brutal background. NIGHT FALLS ON DAMASCUS is a well-told crime story unfolding in a thoroughly criminal setting: a nation in the midst of a civil war. 

Linda Walonen,
Bay Books, San Ramon, CA
cited in iloveamystery.com
“This is a tale of suspense and intrigue set in Damascus in 1933. Nikolai Faroun, the Prefecture of police in the French protectorate of Syria, is investigating the death of Vera Tamiri, from an influential family. Faroun must pick his way through the turmoil of a country on the verge of revolt and untangle the complex web of betrayal at the heart of the crime. The exotic setting and complex motivations make this a satisfying mystery.”

Linda Dewberry,
Whodunit? Books, Olympia, WA
cited in iloveamystery.com
I had never read Frederick Highland before but Night Falls is his third book and first in a new series with Nikolai Faroun, the chief of the Damascus Prefecture. Set in 1930's Syria, Faroun is an Arab who wasn’t raised in the same way as his Damascus neighbors. They can’t tell by looking at him that he’s different from them so although he’s an insider by sight, in his heart he’s an outsider. He’s also an outsider because he was brought to his position by the French who now control Damascus and Syria in general. The victim, Vera Tamiri, is an Arab woman (an insider) who has been working in every way she can to improve the plight of Arab women who have suffered as citizens of a culture which doesn’t value them (which makes her an outsider).

Needless to say Vera has become exceedingly unpopular with prominent members of this male dominated society. When she ends up dead, Faroun, not totally understanding the political reasons others seem not to care about her death, vows to find justice for her. Not in easy job in this society. Night Falls on Damascus is rich with atmosphere and cultural detail. Faroun is a good man in a tough job, and I found it intriguing to watch him struggle to do the right thing as the roadblocks mounted. I highly recommend this book for history lovers and anyone who just wants to understand a culture so different form our own; certainly the political machinations aren’t much different, but the reasoning behind them is.

Young womanl sitting along the banks of the Barada
 

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