Hello everyone
It’s been a while since I wrote about a novel, so I’m going to rectify that now and talk about This is the Night They Come for You by Robert Goddard. Goddard was first published (I believe) in 1986 and has since published 30-something books—this is his most recent (published in 2022).
This is the Night They Come for You is a layered conspiracy thriller set in 1961 and the present day with action in the UK, France, and Algeria. Fact and fiction are woven together and at the heart of the book are characters caught up in Algeria’s independence fight, seen both in the 1960s and 60 years later. We see the choices the characters make and the consequences of those decision.
This is the Night They Come for You is a great book and you should read it. Let me try and explain why…
The Facts Behind the Fiction
The background to the events that unfold in the story surround the struggle for Algerian independence and in particular, the Paris massacre of 17 October 1961 where between 200 and 300 people were killed when French police attacked pro-Algerian independence demonstrators.
In 1962, Algeria gained its independence. However, although the country had won its independence, the French were not happy to allow Algeria to succeed. Many believe the French left a secret, malign network (Hizb Franca) dedicated to undermining the country. Beyond this network, there was also corruption and continuing civil war in the country.
Characters
Against this historical background, Goddard introduces a group of fictional characters and layers of stories. Initially the characters and the story threads seem separate, but as the tale progresses—with each character pursuing their own ends—the disparate threads pull together bringing the characters into each other’s orbits.
Taleb
Superintendent Mouloud Taleb is an honest Algerian cop in a corrupt system. He has been a police officer for several decades and now—as he nears retirement—he knows much that it would be better for him to forget.
At the start of the novel Taleb is tasked with locating Wassim Zarbi, a now elderly man who was recently released after a decades long prison sentence.
Stephen Gray
Stephen Gray is a middle-aged Englishman whose sister, Harriet, disappeared in Paris in 1961 when he was 10-year-old. He has spent much of his adult life trying to find what happened to his sister. As part of that research, he visited Algeria frequently and spoke to Nigel Dalby.
Nigel Dalby
Nigel Dalby was Harriet Gray’s boyfriend at the time of her disappearance.
In October 1961, Dalby witnessed the Paris massacre. He was subsequently obliged to help Wassim Zarbi and Nadir Laloul in the assassination of a French government official. After the assassination he moved to Algeria where he continued to work for Zarbi.
In Algeria, he married and had a daughter, Suzette. At independence, his wife and daughter returned to France. However, Dalby remained and was later murdered by Islamists.
Before his death, Dalby left a journal explaining the events in Paris in 1961, and detailing his, Zarbi’s, and Laloul’s parts in those events.
Suzette
Suzette is Nigel Dalby’s daughter. She was born in Algeria, but left with her mother at the time of independence. She never saw her father again.
Suzette never fully understood the events around her father’s death although she has recently become aware of the journal he wrote.
At the start of the novel, she seeks out Stephen Gray—a man who visited her father while she was a child when he was looking into the disappearance of his sister.
Zarbi
In October 1961, Wassim Zarbi was working as an extra in a Jacques Tati movie. However, he also worked to further the cause of Algerian independence. One act (with Laloul) was to murder a French government official—the murder with which Nigel Dalby was involved.
On his return to Algeria, he worked with the security services, but was jailed for corruption. At the start of the book, he is an old man who was recently released from jail, but then absconded.
Laloul
Like Zarbi, Nadir Laloul was in Paris in 1961 and is now a very old man. Like Zarbi, his activities in Paris were murderous. Like Zarbi, on return to Algeria, Laloul’s actions were corrupt and he amassed a fortune. However, unlike Zarbi, Laloul never went to jail.
Weaving the Threads
Goddard has created a series of rounded and engaging characters, each of whom has their own motivation for acting. Each of whom knows that in the 2020s, the events of 1961 are distant history to many, and that answers can disappear with the death of an old man.
The brilliance of the book (beyond the characters and the layers of story) is how Goddard weaves his fictional world so seamlessly into the facts of Algerian liberation and the subsequent history.
He brings a human perspective to a geopolitical history reflecting on the clash of the personal and political, and takes a look at the corruption and endemic problems left at the end of colonialization.
Until May
This is the Night They Come For You is a proper conspiracy thriller. The story is based around people and is refreshingly “analog” (there are no car chases, there are no high-tech bombs, and there are no spy gadgets).
You can find the book on Amazon UK and Amazon dot com and in all good bookstores. I recommend you check it out.
I’ll be back in May. Until then, enjoy your reading.
All the best
Simon