Fred Vargas has no peers in the crime novel genre. Her writing is absolutely refreshing – and brilliantly translated. Her novels are light yet entirely serious, and at the same time full of instinctive understanding of how human beings work.

In her latest novel, the plot starts when two men are murdered with their throats being slashed. This leads Commissaire Adamsberg to two graves which have been tampered with. He suspects an elderly serial killer nurse that he arrested and had ut away some years back, but has now escaped from prison. There are several other sub-plots concerning Adamsberg's past which add depth to this intriguing story.

Adamsberg is a flawed but brilliant protagonist, and his supporting cast are as idiosyncratic as he is. In their individual ways, they are all important pieces in this amazing jigsaw. Even Snowball, the alcoholic office cat, has an important (if somewhat far-fetched) role to play in this mystery. Adamsberg's trip to a village in Normandy, and his encounters with the locals who gradually accept and even embrace him, is as good a description of a group dynamic as any I've read.

I can't think of another writer who could pull off these stories in the way she does. I read this in one sitting - and will be on the lookout for more. ( )

Great detective story. Adamsberg's intuitive methods help him solve the mystery once more. The detection in the story involves the 'reading' of cultural, historical and 'archaeological' clues, as well as understanding the ways of being of people who live in small villages and their rivalries. ( )

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Vargas is easily the best crime/mystery writer going. Adamsberg is quirky enough to be interesting, but not so quirky one wishes to backhand him. The crimes vary in levels of nastiness, but I never feel as if she's concocting them for shock value.

Actually, "quirky" is probably not the best word for Adamsberg--he's just a real human being, or sort of an enhanced one, as are most of the books characters, which is, I suppose, what makes them characters in the second sense of the word. They aren't types, however--well, some may be; in this book, a lot gets said about people in Normandy, which I assume is some sort of cultural stereotype that would make sense to me if I were French.

What I know is this: I fully enjoy every Vargas book, from the stories to the characters to the use of language and the sideways nuances. Time with Fred Vargas is always time well-spent. ( )

Buon intreccio, coinvolgente. ( )