Sur la dalle: Thriller (Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, 12)

Product Information

Adamsberg also has a complicated relationship with Camille, an artist, and musician, which gives him more depth than the usual crime fiction character. Any new film series of the novels must be filmed in France and in French because the charm of the series is the utter French-ness of the interactions, the local dishes like the cabbage soup with onions and ham the officers eat nearly every night of the investigation, and endless bottles of Madiran. Novelist Fred Vargas, creator of Commissioner Adamsberg, is making a return to crime fiction after a six-year hiatus that left fans impatient, the publisher announced on Tuesday.

Adamsberg investigates the appearance of strange inscriptions on the doors of a Parisian building: an inverted four and underneath three letters, CLT. Joss, an old sailor, receives letters telling him where the next graffiti will be. And panic and murders invade Paris when it is the plague that seems to have spread. Et si moi aussi j'avais deviné l'identité du coupable, ça ne m'a pas dérangée un quart de seconde, il s'agit d'un Fred Vargas pas d'un Gillian Flynn, le plaisir de la lecture se trouve dans l'écriture et dans l'univers si particulier, pas purement dans le "whodunit". D'autant que je n'avais pas du tout démasqué le pourquoi et le comment cette personne tuait. 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... Astronauts look down on our fragile Earth in Samantha Harvey’s Orbital. Photograph: Volodymyr Burdiak/Alamy For those who have read previous books in the series, there is a feeling of coming home. For those who have not, Vargas conveys the sense of the team members and their loyalty, from the very start. And what a quirky team it is, filled with affection and respect, right down to the cat and Mathias, a character from her "The Three Evangelists" series. It's interesting seeing Adamsberg go through the case and the evidence with the team, which adds veracity to the story. The verbal exchanges often make one smile—"It's called Le Curé de Tours, The Priest of Tours." "Thank you,' said Estalère warmly…'Still Balzac didn't bust a gut making up the title, did he?' 'Estalère, one doesn't say of Balzac that "he didn't bust a gut".'Ma, a libro concluso, tutto sommato una storia ben raccontata, ben documentata, avvincente e intrigante. The exhilarating new Inspector Adamsberg novel from France's multi-million-copy bestselling crime fiction star Commissaire Adamsberg investigates the death of three men linked by their childhood at an orphanage in Nimes, all killed by the venom of the recluse spider, in the new novel by the #1 bestselling French crime writer

In Fred Vargas's riveting new novel, Commissaire Adamsberg finds himself in the line of fire as never before. Read more Details This time Adamsberg faces a terrifying Norman medieval legend, that of the Furious Army: a horde of undead knights who roam the woods taking justice into their own hands. A petite lady from Normandy waits for Adamsberg on the sidewalk. They are not quoted, but she doesn't want to talk to anyone but him because one night her daughter saw that Angry Army. Adamsberg agrees to go investigate that terrified town. Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits a joy to watch in action.”—Peter Robinson,New York Timesbestselling author of the Inspector Banks series Otro aspecto negativo es el tratamiento que Vargas da a algunos de sus personajes, con los que no parece saber qué hacer después de tantos años. Innecesaria alguna de las subtramas (no desvelaré de cuál se trata) con uno de los personajes más queridos, que no aporta nada a la historia, rebaja al personaje y parece una pobre excusa para justificar que dicho individuo no participe en la investigación. A otros personajes secundarios simplemente se los ha quitado de encima; un hecho más justificado, en mi opinión, pues ya habían dado de sí lo que podían e incluso sobraban en las últimas aventuras de Adamsberg y cía.She separated her public persona as a writer from her scientific persona by adopting the pseudonym Fred Vargas. "Fred" is the diminutive of her given name, Frédérique, while with "Vargas", she has chosen the same pseudonym than her twin sister, Jo Vargas (pseudonym of Joëlle Audoin-Rouzeau), a painter. For both sisters, the pseudonym "Vargas" derives from the Ava Gardner character in "The Barefoot Contessa". If you’re ready to match wits with the Commissaire? Start reading! Share with us in the comments below if you’ve read any Vargas novels? Anyone who enjoys kooky characters and intricate detail will happily follow Vargas along.”— Entertainment Weekly En prime, j'ai relevé quelques petites perles d'aphorismes que je ne vous dévoilerai pas car en fin de compte les pensées et les maximes en disent plus sur nous que sur leurs auteurs (et "on ne note que ce qu'on ne comprend pas"). At the National Museum of Natural History, Adamsberg meets a pensioner who tells him that two of the three octogenarians have known each other since childhood, when they lived in a local orphanage called The Mercy. There, they had belonged to a small group of violent young boys known as the "band of recluses." Adamsberg faces two obstacles: the third man killed by the same venom was not part of the "band of recluses," and the amount of spider venom necessary to kill doesn't add up.

Which literally means “pulled by the hair” and is the actual translation for “far-fetched,” but because it’s French sounds a lot cooler and way more stylish than its English cousin thrice removed. Obviously.

The first part of the commissioner’s adventures, The Man with the Blue Circleswas published in 1991 by Viviane Hamy editions. Sin embargo, en esta última entrega no le ha salido del todo redonda la jugada. Por mucho que intentara confundir la trama, el culpable estaba claro desde el principio, y los excesivo giros que ha tratado de imprimir a la narración cansan más que confunden. Es cierto que la casualidad juega a menudo un papel decisivo en sus novelas, pero en esta ocasión son demasiadas casualidades que, además, resultan innecesarias; la trama se podía resolver sin recurrir a ellas. Las tesis pseudopsicológicas que se manejan tampoco acaban de cuajar. Vargas writes with the startling imagery and absurdist wit of a latter-day Anouilh, about fey characters who live in a wonderful bohemian world that never was but should have been.”— The New York Times Book Review