An excellent mystery and Sian Reynolds' translation was very good. The one thing holding me back from a higher rating is Commissaire Adamsberg. He solves cases more by intuition (or, to put it another way, a strong sense of people's character) than by detection. This doesn't allow the reader a chance to solve the case independently; even though I am generally not good at doing so, I enjoy trying so this lack lowered my rating of the book. ( )

Unbelievable, but quirky enough to enjoy!! look forward to more ( )

Vargas' eccentric detective, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is the main attraction in this novel, as well as the strange plot in which random discarded items have been circled with blue chalk on the streets of Paris. His investigation method is not one mystery readers - or his colleagues - are familiar with, as Adamsberg quietly considers each bizarre event, knowing instinctively that there is more to these strange things. Only when a body is found in a blue circle is the mystery taken seriously. ( )

This book found its way into my hand in a used bookstore. Blurb on the back, a review from the Winnipeg Free Press says, "Quirky, bizarre, riveting, irresistible, utterly French...Vargas is perhaps the best mystery writer on the planet."

Well. After that, the moody book jacket design (I picked the wrong cover here--I have the blue one with the man on the shadowy street) and the cheap price, it came home with me. We stopped for takeout on the way, and while waiting, I cracked into it. Before the food was ready, I was thoroughly hooked.

The Winnipeg review is accurate in the quirky and bizarre. The characters and dialog are all that.

This was the kind of book, for me, where usual duties might have to wait. The sink can fill with dishes, the laundry can sit...all waiting for me to finish the book. I will say that a LOT of information was withheld until the end; the plot was sinuous; I might have guessed who but not why... and I'm itching to get more Vargas, elated to know that there is more to come. ( )

Newly arrived in Paris as commissaire of the 5th arrondissement, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is troubled by the mysterious actions of the “chalk circle man.” Once or twice a week in different sections of Paris, someone discovers a chalk circle drawn around an inanimate object, always with the same saying surrounding the circle. Adamsberg senses something cruel behind the action. He is drawn to oceanographer Mathilde Forestier, as odd in her own way as he is, and who seems to have more knowledge of the chalk circle man than anyone else in Paris. Events finally prove Adamsberg’s concern justified, as one day a body is discovered inside a chalk circle.

This is a satisfyingly complex mystery peopled with quirky characters, including the neurodiverse Commissaire Adamsberg. The scholars/academics in the book are convincing, perhaps because the author herself is a historian and archaeologist. Adamsberg’s physical description and some of his mannerisms remind me of Peter Falk’s Columbo. I think a lot of Columbo fans would enjoy meeting Adamsberg as much as I did. ( )