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In a small Parisian square, the ancient tradition of the town crier
continues into modern times. The self-appointed crier, Joss Le
Guern, reads out the daily news, snippets of gossip, and lately,
ominous messages -- placed in his handmade wooden message box by an
anonymous source -- that warn of an imminent onset of the bubonic
plague.
Concerned, Le Guern brings the puzzling notes to the bumbling
but brilliant Chief Inspector Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg and his
straight-edged, right-hand man, Adrien Danglard. When strange signs
that were historically believed to ward off the black death start
to appear on the doors of several buildings, Adamsberg takes notice
and suspects a connection with Le Guern's warnings. After a
flea-bitten corpse with plague-like symptoms is found in one of the
marked buildings, Fred Vargas's inimitable genius chief inspector
is under pressure to solve the mystery and restore calm to a
panicked Paris. But is it a real case of the bubonic scourge, or
just a sinister trick designed to frighten as the body count grows
and the culprit continues to elude the police?
Peopled with charming and eccentric Gallic characters, and
packed with gripping historical detail, "Have Mercy on Us All" is a
complex, surprising, and stylish tale from France's finest mystery
writer.
A small mountain community in the French Alps is roused to terror
when they awaken each morning to find yet another of their sheep
with its throat torn out. One of the villagers thinks it might be a
werewolf, and when she's found killed in the same manner, people
begin to wonder if she might have been right. Suspicion falls on
Massart, a loner living on the edge of town.
The murdered woman's adopted son, one of her shepherds, and her
new friend Camille decide to pursue Massart, who has conveniently
disappeared. Their ineptness for the task soon becomes painfully
obvious, and they summon Commissaire Adamsberg from the city to
bring his exceptional powers of intuition to bear on layer upon
layer of buried hatred and secrets.
France's queen of crime writing pits the maverick genius of
Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg against ancient, primal fears
in a novel that "establishes Vargas as one of the most unusual
voices in European crime fiction" "(The Sunday Times"
[London]).
Shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger HOW DO YOU SOLVE A
MURDER WITHOUT A BODY? Keeping watch under the windows of the Paris
flat belonging to a politician's nephew, ex-special investigator
Louis Kehlweiler catches sight of something odd on the pavement. A
tiny piece of bone. Human bone, in fact. When Kehlweiler takes his
find to the nearest police station, he faces ridicule. Obsessed by
the fragment, he follows the trail to the tiny Breton fishing
village of Port-Nicolas - in search of a dog. But when he recruits
'evangelists' Marc and Mathias to help, they find themselves facing
even bigger game. A THREE EVANGELISTS NOVEL
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A Climate of Fear (Paperback)
Fred Vargas; Translated by Sian Reynolds
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*Featured in The Times top ten crime novels of the decade* THE NEW
INSPECTOR ADAMSBERG NOVEL Shortlisted for the CWA International
Dagger 2017 A woman is found dead in her bath. The murder has been
disguised as a suicide and a strange symbol is discovered at the
scene. Then the symbol is observed near a second victim, who ten
years earlier had also taken part in a doomed expedition to
Iceland. How are these deaths, and rumours of an Icelandic demon,
linked to a secretive local society? And what does the mysterious
sign mean? Commissaire Adamsberg is about to find out.
** Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month ** The exhilarating new
Inspector Adamsberg novel from France's multi-million-copy
bestselling crime fiction star **A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
2020** 'Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives... I so enjoyed
This Poison Will Remain' ANN CLEEVES After three elderly men are
bitten by spiders, everyone assumes that their deaths are tragic
accidents. But at police headquarters in Paris, Inspector Adamsberg
begins to suspect that the case is far more complex than first
appears. It isn't long before Adamsberg is investigating a series
of rumours and allegations that take him to the south of France.
Decades ago, at La Misericorde orphanage, shocking events took
place involving the same species of spider: the recluse. For
Adamsberg, these haunting crimes hold the key to proving that the
three men were targeted by an ingenious serial killer. His team,
however, is not convinced. He must put his reputation on the line
to trace the murderer before the death toll rises...
_______________________ PRAISE FOR THIS POISON WILL REMAIN:
'Absorbing... Full of twists and spiced with Vargas's
characteristic wit and style' PETER ROBINSON 'Vargas is an
addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid
world' INDEPENDENT 'Vargas's books are...cunning, corkscrew murder
mysteries' A.J. FINN
Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is not like other policemen. His methods
appear unorthodox in the extreme: he doesn't search for clues; he
ignores obvious suspects and arrests people with iron-clad alibis;
he appears permanently distracted.
The Chalk Circle Man is the first book featuring Jean-Baptiste
Adamsberg, one of the most engaging characters in contemporary
detective fiction.
When strange, blue chalk circles start appearing overnight on the
pavements of Paris, the press take up the story with amusement and
psychiatrists trot out their theories. Adamsberg is alone in
thinking this is not a game and far from amusing. He insists on
being kept informed of new circles and the increasingly bizarre
objects which they contain: empty beer cans, four trombones, a
pigeon's foot, four cigarette lighters, a badge proclaiming "I Love
Elvis," a hat, a doll's head. Adamsberg senses the cruelty that
lies behind these seemingly random occurrences. Soon a circle with
decidedly less banal contents is discovered: the body of a woman
with her throat savagely cut. Adamsberg knows that other murders
will follow.
"From the Hardcover edition."
France's bestselling and award-winning crime writer Fred Vargas
joins Vintage Canada.
The Three Evangelists is an enormously entertaining departure from
Vargas's Commissaire Adamsberg series. Sophia Simeonidis, a Greek
opera singer, wakes up one morning to discover that a tree has
appeared overnight in the garden of her Paris house. As her husband
doesn't give a damn, she asks her new neighbours to dig around the
tree to find out if something has been buried. Her neighbours are
eccentric: Vandoosler, an ex-cop fired from the police for having
helped a murderer to escape, and sharing the house are three
impecunious historians: Mathias, Marc and Lucien - the three
evangelists, as Vandoosler calls them. They accept the job because
they are desperate for money and rather curious. When they find
nothing and Sophia's dead body turns up weeks later, they decide to
investigate.
A phenomenal bestseller in France, This Night's Foul Work is
another irresistible installment in the internationally acclaimed
Commissaire Adamsberg series.
On the edge of Paris two small-time drug dealers have had their
throats cut in a peculiar fashion. Setting out on the trail of the
shadowy killer, Commissaire Adamsberg and his detectives travel
between Paris and the Normandy countryside. Adamsberg's
investigation into these horrible deaths brings him into contact
with the attractive Ariane Lagarde -a pathologist who caused him
professional grief some twenty-five years ago. There's also a new
lieutenant on the scene, whose ties to Adamsberg's past create
tension and hostility in his present. Vargas has given us another
multi-layered, deliciously-paced and thrilling addition to her
acclaimed series.
This Night's Foul Work is the finest novel yet from the wonderful
Fred Vargas.
"From the Hardcover edition."
Between 1943 and 2003 nine people have been stabbed to death with a
most unusual weapon: a trident. In each case, arrests were made,
suspects confessed their crimes and were sentenced to life in
prison. One slightly worrying detail: each presumed murderer lost
consciousness during the night of the crime and has no recollection
of it. Commissaire Adamsberg is convinced all the murders are the
work of one person, the terrifying Judge Fulgence. Years before,
Adamsberg's own brother had been the principal suspect in a similar
case and avoided prison only thanks to Adamsberg's help. History
repeats itself when Adamsberg, who is temporarily based in Quebec
for a training mission, is accused of having savagely murdered a
young woman he had met. In order to prove his innocence, Adamsberg
must go on the run from the Canadian police and find Judge
Fulgence. Winner of the 2007 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger for
The Three Evangelists.
Each day, in honour of a Parisian tradition, a town crier calls out
the local news to all who will listen. Over the course of a few
days a number of disturbing messages are slipped in to his box,
messages of portentous and malicious intent referring to the Black
Death. Strange marks have also appeared on the doors of several
buildings: symbols once used to ward off the plague. Detective
Commissaire Adamsberg begins to sense a connection, even a
grotesque menace. Then charred and flea-bitten corpses are found.
The press seizes on their plague-like symptoms, and the panic sets
in...
Three-times winner of the CWA International Dagger for Crime
Fiction Commissaire Adamsberg has left Paris for a police
conference in London, accompanied by anglophile Commandant Danglard
and Estalere, a young sergeant. The city offers a welcome change of
scenery until a gruesome discovery is made - just outside the gates
of Highgate Cemetery a pile of shoes, all containing severed feet,
is found. Returning to Paris, the three men are then confronted
with the violent killing and dismemberment of a wealthy, elderly
man. Both the dead man's son and gardener have motives for murder,
but soon another candidate for the killing emerges. As Adamsberg
investigates the links between these two unsettling crimes, he puts
himself at terrible risk.
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