Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19270 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Daily Telegraph
Quirky detail and a wicked smattering of humour

Times
Set to make her [a cult writer] here

The Good Book Guide
"brilliantly inventive"

Customer Reviews

Irritating whimsy
I have to say I struggled with this book. I know the author's reputation, and translations are notoriously fickle, so I shall certainly try others of hers, but I found the central characters, the three evangelists, enormously irritating and oh so pleased with themselves. That really killed the rest of the book for me. The plot was okay, although it took too long to gather momentum, and I certainly didn't see the final twist until it was very close. I certainly wouldn't discourage others from giving it a try, but when you do, please, please, please chuck a bucket of extremely cold water over those self-obsessed historians.

A must read book
I love all of the Fred Vargas work. However the translation is not amazing. I have read her books in german and english and the german version is so much more enjoyable. Fred Vargas has the ability to make the reader love all her characters. You will start to love Adamsberg and all the characters helping him to solve the cases. If you are lucky enough to read french or german read it in these languages. Otherwise just give her a try and you will soon buy all her work.

Playful polytechnical policier
This is a playful, mannerist detective story in a long tradition, of which perhaps the classic British exponent was Edmund Crispin. Three disparate, socially marginal historians and their somewhat louche associates unravel a plot of operatic complexity. When a strange lone-wolf investigator intrudes into the story he is of course also murdered and of course leaves a final cryptic message which is of course misinterpreted, and so on (though Vargas doesn't go to Crispin's lengths and have a character suggest turning left because "Gollancz is publishing this book"). It works very well, with a staccato indirect-stream-of-consciouness style which is deftly rendered by Sian Reynolds. It drops to a 4 only because Vargas's trio aren't quite as engaging as she seems to intend, so the story drags slightly until the coils tighten. If you like ludic, you'll like this - if not, not.