Robert Goddard’s crime novels seem to be going from strength to strength. I’ve been enjoying his Umiko Wada mysteries about an unlikely Tokyo private investigator (The Fine Art of Invisible Detection and The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction). Goddard seems to be alternating Wada mysteries with his thrillers set in Algeria featuring his jaded policeman, Superintendent Mouloud Taleb.
This Is the Day They Dream Of is the second story to throw Taleb into a much bigger problem than any retirement-age cop should have to deal with by himself. Taleb was widowed and lost his daughter in a terrorist attack during the 1990s, the décennie noir or ‘dark decade’ of instability and violence in Algeria’s history. Since then work and a high cigarette consumption have kept him going. Plus a strong sense of what is right in a system determined to hide the truth and protect the powerful.
The story begins with Taleb being ‘volunteered’ by his boss, Director Bouras, to be part of a panel on a current affairs TV programme. He’s to give a policeman’s point of view of the events of the décennie noir, now that thirty years have passed. He’s been instructed not to say anything controversial, but somehow he lets slip that the assassination of President Boudiaf may have had something to do with the Secret Service, when he’s egged on by a determined freelance journalist.
Just who really killed the President is the least of Taleb’s worries when he’s sent off to France to negotiate the release of a hostage – none other than the son of General Mokrani, the boss of the Secret Service at the time of the assassination. Taleb finds himself in a country villa also hosting hush-hush negotiations between Algerian and French parties, and the Secret Service agents on site to see they aren’t disturbed aren’t happy with Taleb.
Fortunately for Taleb he’s got an ally in the Secret Service, non other than fit, uncompromising, motorbike-riding Agent Souad Hidouchi. The two made an odd-couple pairing in the previous book (This Is the Night They Come for You) which makes this story all the more entertaining. Hidouchi is just as much for finding out the truth as Taleb, but goes about it differently. She gives her own boss, a vain and self-serving career man, cause for concern, often going off the radar and disobeying orders. But for how long will she be able to get away with it?
When Hidouchi first went into the field as an agent, she was advised by her trainer always to concentrate on herself – her effectiveness, her safety, her management of any situation she found herself in. One of his maxims was that worrying about colleagues was not just a waste of mental energy, since she couldn’t control what they did, it was a loss of focus. And a loss of focus was to be guarded against at all costs, since in some circumstances it could prove fatal.
Hidouchi had taken the advice to heart. She always left her fellow agents to look out for themselves, as she assumed they would her. She is faintly irritated to discover, however, that this doesn’t apply to Taleb. She’s genuinely worried about him, because, of course, she cares what happens to him. And she knows he cares what happens to her. They depend on each other. Her trainer would say dependency creates vulnerability. And he’d be right. But there’s nothing she can do about it now.
The story brings to light horrific events in Algerian recent history, the ongoing effects of the colonial past under France, as well as corruption past and present, and a whole new conspiracy that seems weirdly plausible. Goddard is a mastermind at keeping a bunch of story threads going, weaving them together seamlessly, with an assortment of interesting characters in support. The plotting is superb, and I couldn’t put the book down, making the most of a wet weekend to whizz through the chapters.
I do hope we’ll see Taleb and Hidouchi again (and Umiko Wada) for more tautly plotted mystery-thrillers. The Guardian quote on the book cover states that Goddard is “the world’s greatest storyteller” and I really can’t disagree – in this genre at least. This Is the Day They Dream Of is a five-star read from me.
Judith McKinnon 
I’ve read many of his books in the past but not this. Thanks for the reminder.
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