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Commissaire Adamsberg #7
Die Dritte Jungfrau
Paris, ein Doppelmord an der Porte de la Chapelle. Kommissar Adamsberg auf einsamer Suche nach einem Mörder, der sich nur als Schatten zeigt. Ein teuflisches Elixier aus einem Reliquienbuch des 17. Jahrhunderts, das zum Mordinstrument wird. Und die Dämonen einer weit zurückliegenden Vergangenheit, mit denen der Kommissar sich plötzlich konfrontiert sieht.
474 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
156 people are currently reading
1563 people want to read
About the author
Fred Vargas
70 books1,637 followersFred Vargas is the pseudonym of the French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau (often mistakenly spelled "Audouin-Rouzeau"). She is the daughter of Philippe Audoin(-Rouzeau), a surrealist writer who was close to André Breton, and the sister of the historian Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, a noted specialist of the First World War who inspired her the character of Lucien Devernois.
Archeo-zoologist and historian by trade, she undertook a project on the epidemiology of the Black Death and bubonic plague, the result of which was a scientific work published in 2003 and still considered definitive in this research area: Les chemins de la peste : Le rat la puce et l'homme (Pest Roads).
As a novelist, Fred Vargas writes mostly crime stories. She found writing was a way to combine her interests and relax from her job as a scientist. Her novels are set in Paris and feature the adventures of Chief Inspector Adamsberg and his team. Her interest in the Middle Ages is manifest in many of her novels, especially through the person of Marc Vandoosler, a young specialist in the period.
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".
Her crime fiction policiers have won three International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association, for three successive novels: in 2006, 2008 and 2009. She is the first author to achieve such an honor. In each case her translator into English has been Sîan Leonard, who was also recognized by the international award.
Archeo-zoologist and historian by trade, she undertook a project on the epidemiology of the Black Death and bubonic plague, the result of which was a scientific work published in 2003 and still considered definitive in this research area: Les chemins de la peste : Le rat la puce et l'homme (Pest Roads).
As a novelist, Fred Vargas writes mostly crime stories. She found writing was a way to combine her interests and relax from her job as a scientist. Her novels are set in Paris and feature the adventures of Chief Inspector Adamsberg and his team. Her interest in the Middle Ages is manifest in many of her novels, especially through the person of Marc Vandoosler, a young specialist in the period.
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".
Her crime fiction policiers have won three International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association, for three successive novels: in 2006, 2008 and 2009. She is the first author to achieve such an honor. In each case her translator into English has been Sîan Leonard, who was also recognized by the international award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 444 reviews
November 28, 2020
Fred Vargas, nunca falla. Historia original donde las haya, te engancha hasta el final. Varias tramas se van desarrollando, se entremezclan y se resuelven al final:
Asesinatos de animales en Normandía, asesinas de ancianos, muerte de vírgenes, profanación de tumbas, aparición de elementos personales del Comisario, en este caso entra en escena Veyrenc, y siempre el ingrediente historico- arqueológico que hace tan especiales estos libros. No cuento más, las respuestas al final del libro.
Me ha resultado inverosímil algún pasaje clave para la resolución de la trama y por eso no se lleva las 5 estrellas. Esperando con ansia la nueva entrega del Comisario Adamsberg.
Siempre recomendable.
Asesinatos de animales en Normandía, asesinas de ancianos, muerte de vírgenes, profanación de tumbas, aparición de elementos personales del Comisario, en este caso entra en escena Veyrenc, y siempre el ingrediente historico- arqueológico que hace tan especiales estos libros. No cuento más, las respuestas al final del libro.
Me ha resultado inverosímil algún pasaje clave para la resolución de la trama y por eso no se lleva las 5 estrellas. Esperando con ansia la nueva entrega del Comisario Adamsberg.
Siempre recomendable.
October 28, 2021
For English version please scroll down
****************
Spannend, absurd und sehr unterhaltsam
Commissaire Adamsberg trifft in diesem 7. Band der Adamsberg-Reihe auf begrabene und wieder ausgegrabene Jungfrauen, grausam getötete Hirsche, geisteskranke Serienmörderinnen, gestohlene Reliquien und allerlei anderes nicht Alltägliches.
Die Ermittlungen verlaufen auf Adamsbergsche Weise verwickelt und in ihrem Sinn nicht sofort erkennbar und auch das Ende ist wieder total überraschend. Diesmal waren die letzten 100 Seiten sogar atemberaubend spannend.
Dies ist das dritte Buch von Vargas, das ich gelesen habe. Nachdem die ersten beiden Bücher mich ziemlich verwirrt und unentschlossen zurückgelassen hatten, habe ich in diesem Band nun endlich “das Licht gesehen”.
Vargas schafft es jedesmal einen Plot zu konstruieren, der theoretisch logisch und plausibel erscheint, in der Realität jedoch vollkommen unmöglich wäre. Außerdem verhalten sich ihre Charaktere in einem Maße exzentrisch und skurill , wie es in der Realität niemals geschehen würde, während ihre Umwelt das als gegeben und nicht weiter verwunderlich akzeptiert.
Und genau mit dieser absurden Realitätsferne hatte ich anfangs meine Probleme, bis ich gelesen habe, dass Fred Vargas’ Vater Surrealist war. Danach habe ich dieses Buch begonnen und mich einfach in dieser oftmals absurden und farbenprächtigen Geschichte treiben lassen und dabei die schöne Sprache genossen.
Und siehe da, schon habe ich ein 5-Sterne Buch gelesen und bin sehr glücklich, dass ich einen Weg gefunden habe, diese außergewöhnliche Serie zu genießen.
---------------------------------------
Exciting, absurd and very entertaining
In this 7th volume of the Adamsberg series, Commissaire Adamsberg encounters buried and dug up virgins, cruelly killed deer, insane serial killers, stolen relics and all sorts of other unusual things.
The investigation is conducted in Adamsberg's way and not immediately recognizable in its sense and the end is again totally surprising. This time the last 100 pages were breathtakingly exciting.
This is the third book by Vargas that I have read. After the first two books left me quite confused and indecisive, I finally “saw the light” in this volume.
Vargas manages every time to construct a plot that appears theoretically logical and plausible, but in reality would be completely impossible. In addition, her characters behave eccentrically and bizarre to a degree that would never happen in reality while their environment accepts this as given and not surprising.
And precisely with this absurd distance from reality I had my problems at first, until I read that Fred Vargas’ father was a surrealist. Then I started this book and just let myself go with the flow through this often absurd and colorful story while enjoying the beautiful language.
And lo and behold, I've read a 5-star book and I'm very happy that I've found a way to enjoy this extraordinary series.
****************
Spannend, absurd und sehr unterhaltsam
Commissaire Adamsberg trifft in diesem 7. Band der Adamsberg-Reihe auf begrabene und wieder ausgegrabene Jungfrauen, grausam getötete Hirsche, geisteskranke Serienmörderinnen, gestohlene Reliquien und allerlei anderes nicht Alltägliches.
Die Ermittlungen verlaufen auf Adamsbergsche Weise verwickelt und in ihrem Sinn nicht sofort erkennbar und auch das Ende ist wieder total überraschend. Diesmal waren die letzten 100 Seiten sogar atemberaubend spannend.
Dies ist das dritte Buch von Vargas, das ich gelesen habe. Nachdem die ersten beiden Bücher mich ziemlich verwirrt und unentschlossen zurückgelassen hatten, habe ich in diesem Band nun endlich “das Licht gesehen”.
Vargas schafft es jedesmal einen Plot zu konstruieren, der theoretisch logisch und plausibel erscheint, in der Realität jedoch vollkommen unmöglich wäre. Außerdem verhalten sich ihre Charaktere in einem Maße exzentrisch und skurill , wie es in der Realität niemals geschehen würde, während ihre Umwelt das als gegeben und nicht weiter verwunderlich akzeptiert.
Und genau mit dieser absurden Realitätsferne hatte ich anfangs meine Probleme, bis ich gelesen habe, dass Fred Vargas’ Vater Surrealist war. Danach habe ich dieses Buch begonnen und mich einfach in dieser oftmals absurden und farbenprächtigen Geschichte treiben lassen und dabei die schöne Sprache genossen.
Und siehe da, schon habe ich ein 5-Sterne Buch gelesen und bin sehr glücklich, dass ich einen Weg gefunden habe, diese außergewöhnliche Serie zu genießen.
---------------------------------------
Exciting, absurd and very entertaining
In this 7th volume of the Adamsberg series, Commissaire Adamsberg encounters buried and dug up virgins, cruelly killed deer, insane serial killers, stolen relics and all sorts of other unusual things.
The investigation is conducted in Adamsberg's way and not immediately recognizable in its sense and the end is again totally surprising. This time the last 100 pages were breathtakingly exciting.
This is the third book by Vargas that I have read. After the first two books left me quite confused and indecisive, I finally “saw the light” in this volume.
Vargas manages every time to construct a plot that appears theoretically logical and plausible, but in reality would be completely impossible. In addition, her characters behave eccentrically and bizarre to a degree that would never happen in reality while their environment accepts this as given and not surprising.
And precisely with this absurd distance from reality I had my problems at first, until I read that Fred Vargas’ father was a surrealist. Then I started this book and just let myself go with the flow through this often absurd and colorful story while enjoying the beautiful language.
And lo and behold, I've read a 5-star book and I'm very happy that I've found a way to enjoy this extraordinary series.
April 1, 2020
Luci ed ombre in questo giallo. Di positivo c’è una ottima caratterizzazione dei personaggi, pure troppa, tanto da sentirti in alcuni momenti coinvolta seriamente nella storia dei protagonisti; c’è una bella scrittura, c’è una struttura che apparentemente pare fare acqua, nel senso che fino alle ultime 100 pagine circa sembra non accada nulla di rilevante, ma alla fine si comprende come invece tutto sia stato perfettamente organizzato. Tuttavia in questo romanzo più che in altri ho provato una certa antipatia per la Vargas, per lo sfoggio di erudizione in ogni pagina di una trama incredibile, in cui storia e finzione sono mescolate con esito a mio parere improbabile.
June 7, 2015
I love this author so much -- I try to think of people I could phone to read out whole pages so that they might hear what is delighting my heart!
I love the characters she creates, their peculiarities so lovingly described, each weakness also a strength that her eccentric Commissaire sees and draws on -- her books are about acceptance and forgiveness and stretching one's beliefs and credulity and holding onto hope and being loyal to one's own tribe, the place and people you belong to.
She tells me about the localities of France, regional characteristics, habits, beliefs. I think I am in love with this historian and archeologist and her gentle and peculiar ways for describing the earth (as an archeologist, she knows earth in a different and more intimate way, knows how to feel for changes where the soil has been disturbed and to observe the plants that grow through it) and animals, and people's relationships with them.
The stories wander, the vaguenesses can irritate at first, then in the end, I would not have it any other way.
I love the characters she creates, their peculiarities so lovingly described, each weakness also a strength that her eccentric Commissaire sees and draws on -- her books are about acceptance and forgiveness and stretching one's beliefs and credulity and holding onto hope and being loyal to one's own tribe, the place and people you belong to.
She tells me about the localities of France, regional characteristics, habits, beliefs. I think I am in love with this historian and archeologist and her gentle and peculiar ways for describing the earth (as an archeologist, she knows earth in a different and more intimate way, knows how to feel for changes where the soil has been disturbed and to observe the plants that grow through it) and animals, and people's relationships with them.
The stories wander, the vaguenesses can irritate at first, then in the end, I would not have it any other way.
July 7, 2011
I am enamoured of this mystery series by Fred Vargas. After reading the first in the Commissaire Adamsberg series, I promptly went out and picked another off the shelf, which happens to be Vol #7, the second-to-last of the volumes translated into English. A new novel, (An Uncertain Place has been released in the U.S. in 2011). Since some of the events refer to earlier books in the series, one should probably read them in order, but the central mystery is easy enough to follow. This is such a spectacular addition to Vargas’ French mystery oeuvre, you will be going back to read the earlier books anyway.
A couple of street-smart local lads are found murdered, after they had apparently raided the graves of recently dead spinsters. The dark, almost medieval feel of the mystery is not lightened by another conflict: Adamsberg is being doggedly pursued by a lieutenant on his own force, whose habit of speaking in verse (twelve-syllable alexandrines) is put down to family influence. Everyone seems to think this is a perfectly understandable. --[Gallic shrug]-- Once again we are treated to detailed character sketches of all in Adamsberg’s police force. We learn that Adamsberg’s relationship with the woman of his dreams has developed into something rather more than mere longing, though he is not above looking with interest at other possible liaisons when they present themselves.
It is time to look closely at the author of the series whose pen name is Fred Vargas. The pseudonym conceals the fact that Frédérique Audouin-Rouzeau is a woman, and is in fact a medievalist and archeologist. Fred is the diminuitive of her first name, but Vargas derives from the film The Barefoot Contessa. She has a twin sister, Joëlle, a painter. Vargas has won awards for the last three of her novels, and her translator, Siân Reynolds, has been mentioned in the awards as well, reassuring us that we are getting all the humor and darkness that is contained in the French originals. This is truly a series to savor.
A couple of street-smart local lads are found murdered, after they had apparently raided the graves of recently dead spinsters. The dark, almost medieval feel of the mystery is not lightened by another conflict: Adamsberg is being doggedly pursued by a lieutenant on his own force, whose habit of speaking in verse (twelve-syllable alexandrines) is put down to family influence. Everyone seems to think this is a perfectly understandable. --[Gallic shrug]-- Once again we are treated to detailed character sketches of all in Adamsberg’s police force. We learn that Adamsberg’s relationship with the woman of his dreams has developed into something rather more than mere longing, though he is not above looking with interest at other possible liaisons when they present themselves.
It is time to look closely at the author of the series whose pen name is Fred Vargas. The pseudonym conceals the fact that Frédérique Audouin-Rouzeau is a woman, and is in fact a medievalist and archeologist. Fred is the diminuitive of her first name, but Vargas derives from the film The Barefoot Contessa. She has a twin sister, Joëlle, a painter. Vargas has won awards for the last three of her novels, and her translator, Siân Reynolds, has been mentioned in the awards as well, reassuring us that we are getting all the humor and darkness that is contained in the French originals. This is truly a series to savor.
February 8, 2022
Segundo libro que leo de esta autora y creo que será el último porque no me acaba de gustar. La premisa es una pasada y la ejecución un peñazo.
April 18, 2023
‘This Night’s Foul Work’ by Fred Vargas is the best mystery in the French Commissaire Adamsberg’s quirky, slightly weird series I’ve read so far! I do have a quibble with the perp’s supposed mental illness, but it didn’t get in the way. Well. Maybe a little. However, I really can’t tell where the novel is in the series because it is listed simultaneously as #3, #5 and #7 between Goodreads and Amazon. But because it refers to Adamsberg’s trip to Quebec, which occurred in Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand, I’d bet on it being #7. Maybe. Take a look at the list on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PHMS6Y5?...
I have no idea why the order listing of this series is so off, but it isn’t the first time I’ve come across this kind of mess. Believe it or not, when I first started to read another foreign series, the Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, I had to read them all out of order. They were translated into English out of order. The first Jo Nesbo novel sold in America started with what turned out to be #5, The Devil's Star. Why? I wish I knew because many of these foreign series have ongoing issues that the main character is suffering being carried over from novel to novel. I got the audiobook of #2 Cockroaches before I was able to check out the audiobook #1 The Bat, and neither was available in either a paperback or kindle edition for years. From the audiobook of ‘The Bat’ I learned Harry’s last name was pronounced Hole like the Spanish ‘olé’ with the H sounded out like ‘huh’. But later audiobooks pronounce Harry’s last name like the English word hole, without the e being sounded out, ‘hol’. So how is Harry’s last name pronounced? Idk.
Commissaire Adamsberg novels were also not originally written or published in English. Half of them are also not available on kindle. I read The Chalk Circle Man in hardcover, checked out from a library because it was not available on the kindle, while ‘Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand’ is. A book club recommended ‘Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand’ which from the first interested me, but I soon found out if I wanted to read the series in order, I couldn’t. At the time, only three of the Adamsberg novels were available in English. I have checked back in with the series (two years later), and omg, there are more available! Except the order of the novels is still all over the map….
I have read so far:
-The Chalk Circle Man
-Seeking Whom He May Devour
-Have Mercy on Us All
-Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand
-This Night’s Foul Work
I am printing this out in my review because on Goodreads, you get:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4995...
Which is as messed up as Amazon’s list, except Goodreads messes up internationally, giving an English speaker a selection of French and English editions. However, if you type in the exact titles that I listed above, the versions in English come up as does my review on the English version of the book.
I have copied the book blurb:
”A chilling new mystery from France’s #1 bestselling writer
Twice awarded the International Dagger by the Crime Writers Association, Fred Vargas has earned a reputation in Europe as a mystery author of the first order.
In ‘This Night’s Foul Work’, the intuitive Commissaire Adamsberg teams up with Dr. Ariane, a pathologist with whom he crossed paths twenty years ago, to unravel a beguiling mystery that begins with the discovery of two bodies in Paris, Porte de la Chapelle. Adamsberg believes it may be the work of a killer with split personalities, who is choosing his or her victims very carefully. As other murders begin to surface, Adamsberg must move quickly in order to stop the Angel of Death from killing again. Intricately plotted and featuring Vargas’s wry humor, This Night’s Foul Work will keep readers guessing up to the final page.”
I highly recommend this excellent and extremely quirky mystery series! If you can find it. If you don’t care what order you read it.
Now, if only someone could straighten out the order of the translated Witcher series by Andrzej Sapowski….
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PHMS6Y5?...
I have no idea why the order listing of this series is so off, but it isn’t the first time I’ve come across this kind of mess. Believe it or not, when I first started to read another foreign series, the Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, I had to read them all out of order. They were translated into English out of order. The first Jo Nesbo novel sold in America started with what turned out to be #5, The Devil's Star. Why? I wish I knew because many of these foreign series have ongoing issues that the main character is suffering being carried over from novel to novel. I got the audiobook of #2 Cockroaches before I was able to check out the audiobook #1 The Bat, and neither was available in either a paperback or kindle edition for years. From the audiobook of ‘The Bat’ I learned Harry’s last name was pronounced Hole like the Spanish ‘olé’ with the H sounded out like ‘huh’. But later audiobooks pronounce Harry’s last name like the English word hole, without the e being sounded out, ‘hol’. So how is Harry’s last name pronounced? Idk.
Commissaire Adamsberg novels were also not originally written or published in English. Half of them are also not available on kindle. I read The Chalk Circle Man in hardcover, checked out from a library because it was not available on the kindle, while ‘Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand’ is. A book club recommended ‘Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand’ which from the first interested me, but I soon found out if I wanted to read the series in order, I couldn’t. At the time, only three of the Adamsberg novels were available in English. I have checked back in with the series (two years later), and omg, there are more available! Except the order of the novels is still all over the map….
I have read so far:
-The Chalk Circle Man
-Seeking Whom He May Devour
-Have Mercy on Us All
-Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand
-This Night’s Foul Work
I am printing this out in my review because on Goodreads, you get:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4995...
Which is as messed up as Amazon’s list, except Goodreads messes up internationally, giving an English speaker a selection of French and English editions. However, if you type in the exact titles that I listed above, the versions in English come up as does my review on the English version of the book.
I have copied the book blurb:
”A chilling new mystery from France’s #1 bestselling writer
Twice awarded the International Dagger by the Crime Writers Association, Fred Vargas has earned a reputation in Europe as a mystery author of the first order.
In ‘This Night’s Foul Work’, the intuitive Commissaire Adamsberg teams up with Dr. Ariane, a pathologist with whom he crossed paths twenty years ago, to unravel a beguiling mystery that begins with the discovery of two bodies in Paris, Porte de la Chapelle. Adamsberg believes it may be the work of a killer with split personalities, who is choosing his or her victims very carefully. As other murders begin to surface, Adamsberg must move quickly in order to stop the Angel of Death from killing again. Intricately plotted and featuring Vargas’s wry humor, This Night’s Foul Work will keep readers guessing up to the final page.”
I highly recommend this excellent and extremely quirky mystery series! If you can find it. If you don’t care what order you read it.
Now, if only someone could straighten out the order of the translated Witcher series by Andrzej Sapowski….
June 27, 2016
A priori, je pensais avoir déjà lu ce roman (je l'ai marqué comme "lu" sur Goodreads, mais pour une fois, je l'ai même rangé dans l'étagère "romans policiers", et j'ai été radine en lui donnant rapidement deux ou trois étoiles). Et bien non, dès les premières pages j'ai réalisé qu'en fait je n'avais jamais ouvert ce livre de ma vie – on n'oublie pas certains de ses passages – mais cette confusion décrit assez bien mon rapport avec Fred Vargas : j'en avais déjà lu un, un peu vite sans doute, je suis complètement passée à côté du bouquin, j'ai pensé "mouais bof", j'ai oublié le titre du livre et j'ai mis le tout de côté.
C'est dommage ! Maintenant je m'en veux d'avoir trahi le commissaire Adamsberg. J'ai passé un bon moment de lecture, et je veux maintenant reprendre toute la série, du début à la fin.
L'histoire : alors qu'il vient d'emménager dans une nouvelle maison hantée par le mystérieux fantôme de sainte Clarisse, le commissaire Adamsberg est amené à travailler sur l'assassinat de deux lascars, en banlieue parisienne. Ce double meurtre l'amène jusqu'en Normandie, où il trouvera, en vrac, des normands qui boivent du calvados, des chats morts, des cerfs, des groins de porc, des tombes, des recettes magiques, et plein d'autres détails vraiment tellement oulàlà-mais-que-va-t-il-se-passer que j'aurais bien aimé lire ça sur une plage.
J'ai été emportée, j'ai trouvé que l'histoire (les histoire) étai(en)t bien menée(s), les pages tournaient toutes seules et je n'ai pas deviné qui était le meurtrier jusqu'à la toute fin. Le style est agréable, enlevé, intelligent – à certains moments j'ai même pensé au Nom de la Rose d'Umberto Eco. Tragique et comique se côtoient sous la plume d'une auteure qui sait mener le jeu.
Le réalisme n'est pas toujours au rendez-vous, ce qui ne colle pas forcément au genre choisi, bien entendu ; mais j'ai aimé ces écarts pris avec la norme, comme j'ai aimé la multiplicité des personnages de la brigade, leur burlesque, leur normalité.
Un très bon livre pour commencer mon été de romans policiers ! J'espère que je lirais le prochain sur une plage.
C'est dommage ! Maintenant je m'en veux d'avoir trahi le commissaire Adamsberg. J'ai passé un bon moment de lecture, et je veux maintenant reprendre toute la série, du début à la fin.
L'histoire : alors qu'il vient d'emménager dans une nouvelle maison hantée par le mystérieux fantôme de sainte Clarisse, le commissaire Adamsberg est amené à travailler sur l'assassinat de deux lascars, en banlieue parisienne. Ce double meurtre l'amène jusqu'en Normandie, où il trouvera, en vrac, des normands qui boivent du calvados, des chats morts, des cerfs, des groins de porc, des tombes, des recettes magiques, et plein d'autres détails vraiment tellement oulàlà-mais-que-va-t-il-se-passer que j'aurais bien aimé lire ça sur une plage.
J'ai été emportée, j'ai trouvé que l'histoire (les histoire) étai(en)t bien menée(s), les pages tournaient toutes seules et je n'ai pas deviné qui était le meurtrier jusqu'à la toute fin. Le style est agréable, enlevé, intelligent – à certains moments j'ai même pensé au Nom de la Rose d'Umberto Eco. Tragique et comique se côtoient sous la plume d'une auteure qui sait mener le jeu.
Le réalisme n'est pas toujours au rendez-vous, ce qui ne colle pas forcément au genre choisi, bien entendu ; mais j'ai aimé ces écarts pris avec la norme, comme j'ai aimé la multiplicité des personnages de la brigade, leur burlesque, leur normalité.
Un très bon livre pour commencer mon été de romans policiers ! J'espère que je lirais le prochain sur une plage.
October 5, 2017
Here we go again, Jean-Baptiste. As I said in one of my other reviews these novels of Vargas are definitely characters-driven books. And I constantly find them original and refreshing. If you relish quirky and eccentric protagonists, if you like an odd sense of humour and if you don’t mind convoluted if not far-fetched at times intrigue you should be satisfied with Fred Vargas novels either. I definitely enjoyed following intricacies of Adamsberg mind while he was following rather devious intrigue. Danglard as always was all reason and embodiment of calm in the stormy sea of tangled events but even he miscalulated his posibilities what almost cost life one of their team. Ratancourt found herself in mortal danger but Jean-Baptiste since their case in Quebeck is connetcted with her through thick and thin. She rescued him then and now he needs to save her.
As usual we have another glimpse into commissaire’s private life. And there is a great change in it. Since he royally screwed up his relationship with Camille what’s left to him is the need to fulfil oneself in the role of the father, yes, our eccentric flic is a father of little Tom, what he makes in his usual manner. Mixture of nonchalance, spiced with tenderness and bewilderment.
We also experience some funny moments when locals, the action partially is set in Normandy, need to decide if they could trust Parisian. But since Adamsberg comes from the little village from the Pyrenees breaking the ice and first reluctance is rather matter of time.
Traditionally Vargas laces the plot with some historic events what in that case would be formula for immortality. But don’t try it by yourself for apart from the difficulties to get all ingredients it sounds pretty indigestible. Besides who really wants to live forever?
April 19, 2021
3.5 stars. Two mean are found with their throats slashed near a gravestone that someone has messed with. The investigating police Adamsberg suspect that the murders was committed by a serial killer that has recently escaped prison. The books was atmospheric and a intruging to read. Would like to pick up other books by Fred Vargas if I can find her books.
April 8, 2020
If you have not read any of these Commissaire Ademsberg mysteries, start from the beginning and read them in order (I’m not sure they’ve all been translated; it feels like there are gaps) and don’t stop until you’ve read them all. They are the oddest books, and you will fall under their spell. There is no way to describe this reading experience. This book contains feuds, insularity, mysticism, virgins, immortality, stags, saints relics, cats, miracles, dissociation, oh, and murder, of course.
April 3, 2021
Questo Adamsberg resta uno dei miei preferiti, nonostante (come dicono anche altri utenti) sia pieno di riferimenti colti non sempre di facile comprensione. Eppure l'oscurità di questa storia è avvolgente esattamente come dovrebbe essere, rendendo Nei boschi eterni un libro che ti spinge a divorarlo, pagina dopo pagina, quasi senza dover riprendere fiato, senza dover poggiare il libro sul comodino.
La caratterizzazione della squadra dell'Anticrimine viene approfondita e la sua composizione leggermente mutata, i ruoli si fanno più chiari anche grazia al parallelismo con il gruppo normanno con cui Adamsberg si trova ad entrare in contatto: ci sono i positivisti, quelli che si "oppongono" ai metodi di Adamsberg, vaghi e poco logici, spesso incomprensibili e talvolta snervante, capitanati dalla dea polivalente Retancourt; e poi ci sono gli spalatori di nuvole, che sostengono in modo quasi assurdo (visto come commissario ha parecchie pecche) Adamsberg. E c'è un nuovo, anzi IL Nuovo, che entra in punta di piedi all'Anticrimine smuovendone i precari equilibri: Veyrenc parla in versi raciniani, ha i capelli zebrati, è di una bellezza strana eppure innegabile, entra nelle grazie di Retancourt e addirittura in quelle di Camille, cosa che - per dirla con un eufemismo - fa storcere il naso a Jean-Baptiste con cui ha degli antichi conti in sospeso.
A Parigi due giovani marcantonio vengono uccisi, pare, per questioni di droga. In Normandia dei cervi vengono massacrati senza rispetto per le tradizioni. Il medico legale Romain è sostituito dalla brillante Ariane Lagarde, famosa per i suoi studi sugli assassini dissociati. Adamsberg cambia casa e si trova a condividerla con lo spettro di una suora assassina uccisa a pugni da un conciatore di pelle e, cosa da non sottovalutare, con uno spagnolo dal braccio amputato che più di sessant'anni dopo continua a grattarsi un morso di ragno sull'avambraccio che non c'è più.
Tombe di vergini vengono aperte e richiuse (e qui vediamo riapparire uno dei Quattro Evangelisti, il Preistorico Mathias, detto San Matteo) lasciando tracce che solo Adamsberg, sulle orme di un'anziana infermiera dissociata, pare riuscire a vedere. Tutti questi eventi vengono, dallo spalatori di nuvole che adesso passeggia lungo la Senna, collegati e grazie all'erudizione universale di Danglard visti sotto una luce diversa, luce emanata dalla "ricetta" per la vita eterna contenuta in un volume medievale costruito da un parroco normanno. E tutto si chiarisce quando Retancourt - la grassa, forse vergine, dea polivalente dell'Anticrimine - viene rapita e quasi uccisa, dopo che anche gli spalatori di nuvole più decisi tentennano di fronte ai percorsi irragionevoli del commissario. Retancourt che parla in versi, come Corneille, opponendosi a Racine.
Adamsberg risolve sagacemente e umanamente - per quanto possibile dovendo affrontare un serial killer - l'ennesimo caso, riconfermandosi la creazione brillante della Vargas. E risolve anche i vecchi guasti tra valli/paesi che in ogni Paese esistono.
Consigliatissimo, davvero.
La caratterizzazione della squadra dell'Anticrimine viene approfondita e la sua composizione leggermente mutata, i ruoli si fanno più chiari anche grazia al parallelismo con il gruppo normanno con cui Adamsberg si trova ad entrare in contatto: ci sono i positivisti, quelli che si "oppongono" ai metodi di Adamsberg, vaghi e poco logici, spesso incomprensibili e talvolta snervante, capitanati dalla dea polivalente Retancourt; e poi ci sono gli spalatori di nuvole, che sostengono in modo quasi assurdo (visto come commissario ha parecchie pecche) Adamsberg. E c'è un nuovo, anzi IL Nuovo, che entra in punta di piedi all'Anticrimine smuovendone i precari equilibri: Veyrenc parla in versi raciniani, ha i capelli zebrati, è di una bellezza strana eppure innegabile, entra nelle grazie di Retancourt e addirittura in quelle di Camille, cosa che - per dirla con un eufemismo - fa storcere il naso a Jean-Baptiste con cui ha degli antichi conti in sospeso.
A Parigi due giovani marcantonio vengono uccisi, pare, per questioni di droga. In Normandia dei cervi vengono massacrati senza rispetto per le tradizioni. Il medico legale Romain è sostituito dalla brillante Ariane Lagarde, famosa per i suoi studi sugli assassini dissociati. Adamsberg cambia casa e si trova a condividerla con lo spettro di una suora assassina uccisa a pugni da un conciatore di pelle e, cosa da non sottovalutare, con uno spagnolo dal braccio amputato che più di sessant'anni dopo continua a grattarsi un morso di ragno sull'avambraccio che non c'è più.
Tombe di vergini vengono aperte e richiuse (e qui vediamo riapparire uno dei Quattro Evangelisti, il Preistorico Mathias, detto San Matteo) lasciando tracce che solo Adamsberg, sulle orme di un'anziana infermiera dissociata, pare riuscire a vedere. Tutti questi eventi vengono, dallo spalatori di nuvole che adesso passeggia lungo la Senna, collegati e grazie all'erudizione universale di Danglard visti sotto una luce diversa, luce emanata dalla "ricetta" per la vita eterna contenuta in un volume medievale costruito da un parroco normanno. E tutto si chiarisce quando Retancourt - la grassa, forse vergine, dea polivalente dell'Anticrimine - viene rapita e quasi uccisa, dopo che anche gli spalatori di nuvole più decisi tentennano di fronte ai percorsi irragionevoli del commissario. Retancourt che parla in versi, come Corneille, opponendosi a Racine.
Adamsberg risolve sagacemente e umanamente - per quanto possibile dovendo affrontare un serial killer - l'ennesimo caso, riconfermandosi la creazione brillante della Vargas. E risolve anche i vecchi guasti tra valli/paesi che in ogni Paese esistono.
Consigliatissimo, davvero.
October 14, 2012
Este livro é parado. Parado até. . . meio do livro ou um pouco até mais de meio do livro e eu não gosto disso em policiais. Gosto de "acção" logo a partir da primeira página, gosto que a história me envolva e gosto de pormenores sórdidos. Este livro. . . também os tem.
Aliás, tem personagens carismáticas que dão um toque especial, que tanto podem ser enigmáticas como confusas. Desde o início somos enredados na trama e conhecemos pessoas com as suas características específicas.
Conhecemos um comissário de excelência, um vizinho espanhol deste mesmo comissário,um novo tenente que entra na brigada, que fala em verso (é de família), um médico-legista incapacitado, uma polícia que é imponente, tanto no físico como intelectualmente, um polícia com muito boa memória, um polícia muito amigo do comissário, um outro ainda rezingão e ainda uma médica-legista reputada como a melhor, fora outros, são variadas as personagens.
Neste policial, temos lendas e um mito duma alma penada do século anterior, da época anterior à revolução. Uma velha maldição, uma sombra. . . Sendo que esta sombra vai ser o tópico principal de todo o livro. . . esta sombra revela-se o pior medo dos polícias intervenientes na investigação. O comissário vai sentir-se traído e vai ser induzido em erro. . . mas será pela pessoa que tem em pensamento??
Muito bom.
Aliás, tem personagens carismáticas que dão um toque especial, que tanto podem ser enigmáticas como confusas. Desde o início somos enredados na trama e conhecemos pessoas com as suas características específicas.
Conhecemos um comissário de excelência, um vizinho espanhol deste mesmo comissário,um novo tenente que entra na brigada, que fala em verso (é de família), um médico-legista incapacitado, uma polícia que é imponente, tanto no físico como intelectualmente, um polícia com muito boa memória, um polícia muito amigo do comissário, um outro ainda rezingão e ainda uma médica-legista reputada como a melhor, fora outros, são variadas as personagens.
Neste policial, temos lendas e um mito duma alma penada do século anterior, da época anterior à revolução. Uma velha maldição, uma sombra. . . Sendo que esta sombra vai ser o tópico principal de todo o livro. . . esta sombra revela-se o pior medo dos polícias intervenientes na investigação. O comissário vai sentir-se traído e vai ser induzido em erro. . . mas será pela pessoa que tem em pensamento??
Muito bom.
December 14, 2018
Esta ha sido una lectura de azar; no tenía para leer, era una novela policial y estaba disponible; y quería confirmar la confusión que sentí con mi experiencia previa con la autora (Tiempos de hielo, Adamsberg #10).
Fred Vargas se me antojaba como el nombre de un escritor colombiano, pero es el seudónimo de Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau (Francia, 1957).
Sus novelas son eruditas; mucha información general aparece en el desarrollo del caso. Y su protagonista, el Comisario Adamsberg tiene una extraña forma de resolver los casos: los comprende intuitivamente; mientras tanto sus ventisiete colaboradores se afanan en la búsqueda de pistas y testigos, el se sienta a orillas del Sena y deja que de su desorden mental surja una epifanía. Por supuesto que siempre, con algún pequeño margen de error, acierta.
La narrativa de Vargas me ha parecido todo menos fluida, y el desarrollo de detalles, si bien insertados correctamente en la trama, me ha parecido excesivo.
La calificación de tres estrellas podría haber sido de 2,5, y va en reconocimiento al indudable esfuerzo que vuelca en sus novelas.
Para mí, más que suficiente con el disperso Comisario Adamsberg.
Fred Vargas se me antojaba como el nombre de un escritor colombiano, pero es el seudónimo de Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau (Francia, 1957).
Sus novelas son eruditas; mucha información general aparece en el desarrollo del caso. Y su protagonista, el Comisario Adamsberg tiene una extraña forma de resolver los casos: los comprende intuitivamente; mientras tanto sus ventisiete colaboradores se afanan en la búsqueda de pistas y testigos, el se sienta a orillas del Sena y deja que de su desorden mental surja una epifanía. Por supuesto que siempre, con algún pequeño margen de error, acierta.
La narrativa de Vargas me ha parecido todo menos fluida, y el desarrollo de detalles, si bien insertados correctamente en la trama, me ha parecido excesivo.
La calificación de tres estrellas podría haber sido de 2,5, y va en reconocimiento al indudable esfuerzo que vuelca en sus novelas.
Para mí, más que suficiente con el disperso Comisario Adamsberg.
June 13, 2008
No one pens a policier like Fred Vargas (aka Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, a French medieval historian and archaeologist). Her Commissaire Adamsberg novels aren't only a cut above the usual series fiction; they're in a class of their own. There's Adamsberg, to start with, an absent-minded savant, plus his equally odd team of detectives. But what gives these books their specific flavor is the way Vargas infuses her historical and scientific knowledge into the convolutions of her plots, and the peculiar charm or brutality of her characters.
This is the fifth of the series to be translated; I recommend reading them in order (check wikipedia for the sequence). She really is for the connoisseur. No American writes like this.
This is the fifth of the series to be translated; I recommend reading them in order (check wikipedia for the sequence). She really is for the connoisseur. No American writes like this.
February 10, 2025
Libro comprato a casissimo ma che si è rivelato una perla. FRED VARGAS SOY TU FAN!
Adamsberg e i suoi sono tutti pazzi, pazzissimi, i più matti (cit)!
Nonostante, come si può capire, non abbia letto niente della Vargas prima di questo libro, i rimandi ai libri precedenti sono tutti ben contestualizzati e non mi hanno fatto sentire la mancanza di conoscenza pregressa, anzi. Sicuramente più avanti recuperò gli altri suoi libri perché è un'autrice che merita.
Finalmente un commissario che non è un armadio a quattro ante, burbero, che riesce ad esprimersi in modo più eloquente di un teen ager maranzello.
Ultimo, ma non per importanza: seguo una nuova religione ed è il Retancourtesimo.
Adamsberg e i suoi sono tutti pazzi, pazzissimi, i più matti (cit)!
Nonostante, come si può capire, non abbia letto niente della Vargas prima di questo libro, i rimandi ai libri precedenti sono tutti ben contestualizzati e non mi hanno fatto sentire la mancanza di conoscenza pregressa, anzi. Sicuramente più avanti recuperò gli altri suoi libri perché è un'autrice che merita.
Finalmente un commissario che non è un armadio a quattro ante, burbero, che riesce ad esprimersi in modo più eloquente di un teen ager maranzello.
Ultimo, ma non per importanza: seguo una nuova religione ed è il Retancourtesimo.
March 15, 2015
Una scoperta recente e felice: Fred Vargas, che non conoscevo affatto, mi è davvero piaciuta e sicuramente questo non sarà l’unico libro che di lei leggerò.
La struttura di base che regge la storia è quella del romanzo poliziesco e, dunque, come in ogni “giallo” che si rispetti, abbiamo un assassino e delle vittime. Ma non è per questo che si legge il libro quasi con bramosia, bensì perché ci si innamora quasi subito dei personaggi che ci descrive e del modo limpido, ironico, esatto in cui si snodano le parole. In verità, alla fine quasi non mi importava sapere chi fosse l’assassino, perché era già stato appagante “conoscere” il commissario Adamsberg, lo “spalatore di nuvole”, il suo braccio destro, Danglard, perso nel “male di vivere”, la formidabile Retancourt, che sa indirizzare l’energia dove vuole, il patologo Romain, che soffre di languori, l’ingenuo Estalére, che si ricorda delle preferenze di tutti, e il gatto Palla, che assomiglia più ad uno straccio bagnato che ad un felino. E non solo questi, che sono i personaggi principali, ma anche quelle figurine “minori”, ma non meno intense, quali ad esempio Lucio Velasco, che continua a provare prurito per un morso di ragno in un punto preciso di un braccio che non ha più oppure quel gruppo di uomini che stazionano da anni, ogni sera, al bar del villaggio di Haroncourt, rispettando, giorno dopo giorno, una schema comunicativo collaudato e soddisfacente per tutti.
No, in effetti non ha alcuna importanza chi sia l’assassino, perché basterebbero le storie che Adamsberg racconta al figlio Tom per giustificare la lettura di questo romanzo, basterebbero i dialoghi tra lui e Danglard, basterebbero le dormite di Mercadet o la fame cronica di Froissy.
C’è un po’ di Simenon in queste pagine ed anche un po’ di Pennac, ma soprattutto c’è molta intelligenza e buon gusto.
La struttura di base che regge la storia è quella del romanzo poliziesco e, dunque, come in ogni “giallo” che si rispetti, abbiamo un assassino e delle vittime. Ma non è per questo che si legge il libro quasi con bramosia, bensì perché ci si innamora quasi subito dei personaggi che ci descrive e del modo limpido, ironico, esatto in cui si snodano le parole. In verità, alla fine quasi non mi importava sapere chi fosse l’assassino, perché era già stato appagante “conoscere” il commissario Adamsberg, lo “spalatore di nuvole”, il suo braccio destro, Danglard, perso nel “male di vivere”, la formidabile Retancourt, che sa indirizzare l’energia dove vuole, il patologo Romain, che soffre di languori, l’ingenuo Estalére, che si ricorda delle preferenze di tutti, e il gatto Palla, che assomiglia più ad uno straccio bagnato che ad un felino. E non solo questi, che sono i personaggi principali, ma anche quelle figurine “minori”, ma non meno intense, quali ad esempio Lucio Velasco, che continua a provare prurito per un morso di ragno in un punto preciso di un braccio che non ha più oppure quel gruppo di uomini che stazionano da anni, ogni sera, al bar del villaggio di Haroncourt, rispettando, giorno dopo giorno, una schema comunicativo collaudato e soddisfacente per tutti.
No, in effetti non ha alcuna importanza chi sia l’assassino, perché basterebbero le storie che Adamsberg racconta al figlio Tom per giustificare la lettura di questo romanzo, basterebbero i dialoghi tra lui e Danglard, basterebbero le dormite di Mercadet o la fame cronica di Froissy.
C’è un po’ di Simenon in queste pagine ed anche un po’ di Pennac, ma soprattutto c’è molta intelligenza e buon gusto.
June 19, 2017
Normally I wouldn't pick up a book in the middle of a series, but this beckoned to me from a neighborhood little free library and the author's name is Fred and it seemed different from anything I've read before (I don't think I've read any other French detective fun).
Initially I was captivated and entertained, then I started snorting & thinking the characters were super stupid with the virgin thing and their slowness unraveling certain clues and horrible with the jealous privacy-invasion thing (which also made me think the author's stupid), but then it got even sillier in a way with the cat which kind of won me back. And now I even want to go back and read more of the Adamsberg / Retancourt history (and just more Retancourt in general), and I do respect the amount of work that must go into creating something like this and keeping it interesting after half-a-dozen books, and the characters do have a lot of heart. I especially love the guy who remembers & caters to everybody's individual preferences/tastes with coffee, blood types, etc.
There was a lot of rhyming poetry stuff and I wondered how differently it would have read if not a French-to-English translation. In general it's hard to feel what this would read like for a French audience. I don't know anything about French pop culture. I really loved that Swimming Pool movie, though. That's kind of Frenchy-detective-writer-lady stuff, right? Anyhoo ... nice pleasure reading and not a bunch of terrifyingly serious brutal graphic violence.
Initially I was captivated and entertained, then I started snorting & thinking the characters were super stupid with the virgin thing and their slowness unraveling certain clues and horrible with the jealous privacy-invasion thing (which also made me think the author's stupid), but then it got even sillier in a way with the cat which kind of won me back. And now I even want to go back and read more of the Adamsberg / Retancourt history (and just more Retancourt in general), and I do respect the amount of work that must go into creating something like this and keeping it interesting after half-a-dozen books, and the characters do have a lot of heart. I especially love the guy who remembers & caters to everybody's individual preferences/tastes with coffee, blood types, etc.
There was a lot of rhyming poetry stuff and I wondered how differently it would have read if not a French-to-English translation. In general it's hard to feel what this would read like for a French audience. I don't know anything about French pop culture. I really loved that Swimming Pool movie, though. That's kind of Frenchy-detective-writer-lady stuff, right? Anyhoo ... nice pleasure reading and not a bunch of terrifyingly serious brutal graphic violence.
November 30, 2008
Amazing and it took away the bad taste that was left from her previous Adamsberg's novel.
This time Adamsberg faces two evils that might be actually one or three. Like all Vargas "mysteries" the how Adamsberg gets there is somewhat twisted and beware of red herrings in this one. I had the right solution (first time that ever happened to me with Vargas) and was convinced otherwise by her cunning.
The scenes of Jean-Baptiste and his little son are precious and tender. His very human and male reactions to Camille getting on with her life are also well done.
But Violette Retancourt whom I thought was a caricature in the last book steals the book along with Estalère that finally becomes a whole character not just a loosely drawn idea. In fact all of Adamsberg "gang" gets a more defined focus and it adds to the richness of the whole book.
This time Adamsberg faces two evils that might be actually one or three. Like all Vargas "mysteries" the how Adamsberg gets there is somewhat twisted and beware of red herrings in this one. I had the right solution (first time that ever happened to me with Vargas) and was convinced otherwise by her cunning.
The scenes of Jean-Baptiste and his little son are precious and tender. His very human and male reactions to Camille getting on with her life are also well done.
But Violette Retancourt whom I thought was a caricature in the last book steals the book along with Estalère that finally becomes a whole character not just a loosely drawn idea. In fact all of Adamsberg "gang" gets a more defined focus and it adds to the richness of the whole book.
March 15, 2020
I wanted to like this novel. I enjoyed the mix of personalities, and the novel started out okay, but it just gets sillier and sillier. They use a cat like a bloodhound, there’s a character who speaks in poetry, and there’s an absurd network of coincidences that run through the plot. The whole sub-story with the new detective with streaked hair was a lame distraction that added nothing. I skimmed the last 100 pages or so because I had just enough interest to want to know how it ended.
June 28, 2021
Mi primera experiencia con Fred Vargas, de quien tenía muy buenas referencias... y me temo que la última.
A ver, la historia está bien, es original, y los personajes, cuando menos, curiosos, por no decir que todos y todas son bastante raritos. Todo el equipo de Adamsberg es bastante particular, cada uno con su rareza particular. Y quizá esta es la parte que más me ha gustado, cada policía tiene su propia personalidad, aunque salga sólo unas páginas en el libro
Como novela negra, el caso está bien planteado, hay una intriga adecuada, se juega al despiste. Pero la suspensión de la incredulidad que se nos pide en ocasiones es excesiva
La trama de los animales, las reliquias, pócimas y demás sí tiene su atractivo, pero la forma de solucionar el caso es algo decepcionante
Sí reconozco que está bien escrita, que es una lectura entretenida; pero a una novela negra le pido más coherencia y más rigor en la investigación. Y aquí no lo he tenido.
No creo que repita con la autora, salvo que tenga otro tipo de novelas
A ver, la historia está bien, es original, y los personajes, cuando menos, curiosos, por no decir que todos y todas son bastante raritos. Todo el equipo de Adamsberg es bastante particular, cada uno con su rareza particular. Y quizá esta es la parte que más me ha gustado, cada policía tiene su propia personalidad, aunque salga sólo unas páginas en el libro
Como novela negra, el caso está bien planteado, hay una intriga adecuada, se juega al despiste. Pero la suspensión de la incredulidad que se nos pide en ocasiones es excesiva
La trama de los animales, las reliquias, pócimas y demás sí tiene su atractivo, pero la forma de solucionar el caso es algo decepcionante
Sí reconozco que está bien escrita, que es una lectura entretenida; pero a una novela negra le pido más coherencia y más rigor en la investigación. Y aquí no lo he tenido.
No creo que repita con la autora, salvo que tenga otro tipo de novelas
September 23, 2023
Fred Vargas is an outstanding writer of mystery. She peoples her books with a large assortment of characters, all of whom have their interesting quirks and idiosyncrasies, as well as their human failings. The fact that most of these characters are part of a police squad adds a whole other dimension. Vargas is very intelligent and her knowledge base is wide. For instance, one character here speaks in alexandrines, a poetic device. Another has encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much anything. A third is a crack at using technology. Vargas weaves all these people together under the direction of Adamsberg, the commissaire who employs most unusual and unorthodox methods in solving crimes. Vargas is also skillful at leading the reader along, believing we know who is behind the murders, when all along the murderer is in plain sight and is overlooked. (This is the second book of hers which has fooled me this way.) I recommend this books highly and hope to continue reading more of her work.
October 21, 2023
Veyrenc de Bilhc brengt het drama en I'm here for it.
November 23, 2017
Paris, upper Normandy, stag hearts, murder, grave robbers, immortality potions, what’s not to like? A perfect distraction. I’ll read more of Fred’s work, I think. She’s good.
March 21, 2019
Tengo una relación amor-decepción con este libro.
Las relaciones entre los personajes son puro oro. El diálogo es maduro y real, y los momentos en los que Vargas nos expone sus toques de humor escondidos entre conversaciones aparentemente profesionales entre hombres de la brigada me han encantado.
Otra de las cosas que me han cautivado es la presencia constante de pequeños toques de cultura y conocimiento que la escritora añade al libro sin que parezca forzado en absoluto y que aprendí de la misma forma, de forma fluida y con satisfacción.
Por estas dos razones, sentí que el libro se leía rápido, sin problema. Hay según que páginas que quizás son un poco más profundas, si se les da más vueltas (aunque eso ya depende de cada lector), pero en general no hay segundos significados ni escenas de múltiples capas de complejidad. Nos nos veremos subsumidos en un tornado filosófico mientras pasemos las páginas,cosa que entiendo y respeto porque no es ese tipo de libro para empezar. Su madurez se ve más bien reflectada en el diálogo, no tanto en el pensamiento y la percepción humanas, dónde la imaginación y el surrealismo ya juegan papeles mayores que en parte caracterizan a la autora y a su género, diferenciándola de otras novelas policíacas.
Habiendo comentado todas estas cosas, parece que ya no queda nada malo por decir. Aquí es cuando nos equivocamos.
La trama. La trama es original, no le quitaré eso, aunque un poco predecible. No me pasaré de lista, es verdad que algunas cosas me pillaron por sorpresa, pero muchas otras no, nada. Y en parte eso fue porque quizás una de las debilidades de Vargas es el prejuicio. La forma de definir a los personajes en si, la encuentro un poco simplista. Sus características, sus rasgos, sus comportamientos. Una de las cosas que me molestaron fue la forma de describir a las mujeres de la novela, supongo que Vargas es el claro ejemplo de que no importa el sexo cuando se trata de retratar a el personaje femenino de una forma predecible y bastante más simplista que el resto de personajes masculinos. No puedo contar con los dedos de mis manos, ni con las mías ni con las de los 4 miembros de mi familia, las veces en las que se nos recuerda que Rentancourt es gorda. O las veces en las que se dice que la forense se conserva muy bien por la edad que tiene. O el hecho de que se tenga que recurrir a decir que las vírgenes no se cuidaban, o que vivían aisladas, para justificar su virginidad...
Como no comentar, también, el comportamiento masculino esperable por parte de Adamsberg cuando un "rival" le quita la chica, con la que ya no tiene una relación amorosa, pero eso da igual, sigue teniendo derecho a ser el único hombre en su vida. Ugh.
Entiendo que esto a mucha gente no le parezca mal, sigue siendo una visión de la mujer y del comportamiento de ambos sexos bastante generalizada y que por lo tanto a muchas personas, entre ellas mujeres como Fred Vargas, les parezca normal.
Pero se da la situación de que a mi no me lo parece, y me arruina bastante la experiencia ver esto y ver que a partir de esto la historia evoluciona de una forma predecible.
Seguro que no soy la única que se esperaba que en algún momento se planteara la virginidad de Rentancourt por el mero hecho de que llevamos toda la novela recordando lo poco atractiva que la ven la mayoría de hombres de la brigada y lo gorda que es. Seguro que no soy la única en ver una mínima conexión entre el análisis que hace diversas veces Adamsberg del físico de la forense comparado con su edad para sospechar de los motivos de esta en algún momento de la novela, ya que uno de los temas principales de la novela es el planteamiento de la juventud como bien eterno.
Es por eso que no puedo decir que haya disfrutado la novela de la forma con la que me hubiese gustado.
Me sabe mal, y seguramente se da a la clara diferencia de visiones con una persona joven como yo y la autora de la novela, pero no puedo llegar a saborear sus muchas cualidades cuando la crítica social me carcome cada vez que leo una línea más de el "exuberante, titánico, gordo cuerpo de Rentancourt" o "la vaca" o "el poco cuidado de la primera virgen". No solo me molesta, sino que me convierte en una adivina de un final predecible del cual, seguramente, no era ni consciente Vargas: Los prejuicios son su punto débil.
Las relaciones entre los personajes son puro oro. El diálogo es maduro y real, y los momentos en los que Vargas nos expone sus toques de humor escondidos entre conversaciones aparentemente profesionales entre hombres de la brigada me han encantado.
Otra de las cosas que me han cautivado es la presencia constante de pequeños toques de cultura y conocimiento que la escritora añade al libro sin que parezca forzado en absoluto y que aprendí de la misma forma, de forma fluida y con satisfacción.
Por estas dos razones, sentí que el libro se leía rápido, sin problema. Hay según que páginas que quizás son un poco más profundas, si se les da más vueltas (aunque eso ya depende de cada lector), pero en general no hay segundos significados ni escenas de múltiples capas de complejidad. Nos nos veremos subsumidos en un tornado filosófico mientras pasemos las páginas,cosa que entiendo y respeto porque no es ese tipo de libro para empezar. Su madurez se ve más bien reflectada en el diálogo, no tanto en el pensamiento y la percepción humanas, dónde la imaginación y el surrealismo ya juegan papeles mayores que en parte caracterizan a la autora y a su género, diferenciándola de otras novelas policíacas.
Habiendo comentado todas estas cosas, parece que ya no queda nada malo por decir. Aquí es cuando nos equivocamos.
La trama. La trama es original, no le quitaré eso, aunque un poco predecible. No me pasaré de lista, es verdad que algunas cosas me pillaron por sorpresa, pero muchas otras no, nada. Y en parte eso fue porque quizás una de las debilidades de Vargas es el prejuicio. La forma de definir a los personajes en si, la encuentro un poco simplista. Sus características, sus rasgos, sus comportamientos. Una de las cosas que me molestaron fue la forma de describir a las mujeres de la novela, supongo que Vargas es el claro ejemplo de que no importa el sexo cuando se trata de retratar a el personaje femenino de una forma predecible y bastante más simplista que el resto de personajes masculinos. No puedo contar con los dedos de mis manos, ni con las mías ni con las de los 4 miembros de mi familia, las veces en las que se nos recuerda que Rentancourt es gorda. O las veces en las que se dice que la forense se conserva muy bien por la edad que tiene. O el hecho de que se tenga que recurrir a decir que las vírgenes no se cuidaban, o que vivían aisladas, para justificar su virginidad...
Como no comentar, también, el comportamiento masculino esperable por parte de Adamsberg cuando un "rival" le quita la chica, con la que ya no tiene una relación amorosa, pero eso da igual, sigue teniendo derecho a ser el único hombre en su vida. Ugh.
Entiendo que esto a mucha gente no le parezca mal, sigue siendo una visión de la mujer y del comportamiento de ambos sexos bastante generalizada y que por lo tanto a muchas personas, entre ellas mujeres como Fred Vargas, les parezca normal.
Pero se da la situación de que a mi no me lo parece, y me arruina bastante la experiencia ver esto y ver que a partir de esto la historia evoluciona de una forma predecible.
Seguro que no soy la única que se esperaba que en algún momento se planteara la virginidad de Rentancourt por el mero hecho de que llevamos toda la novela recordando lo poco atractiva que la ven la mayoría de hombres de la brigada y lo gorda que es. Seguro que no soy la única en ver una mínima conexión entre el análisis que hace diversas veces Adamsberg del físico de la forense comparado con su edad para sospechar de los motivos de esta en algún momento de la novela, ya que uno de los temas principales de la novela es el planteamiento de la juventud como bien eterno.
Es por eso que no puedo decir que haya disfrutado la novela de la forma con la que me hubiese gustado.
Me sabe mal, y seguramente se da a la clara diferencia de visiones con una persona joven como yo y la autora de la novela, pero no puedo llegar a saborear sus muchas cualidades cuando la crítica social me carcome cada vez que leo una línea más de el "exuberante, titánico, gordo cuerpo de Rentancourt" o "la vaca" o "el poco cuidado de la primera virgen". No solo me molesta, sino que me convierte en una adivina de un final predecible del cual, seguramente, no era ni consciente Vargas: Los prejuicios son su punto débil.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2018
Encore du grand Vargas !
Le meilleur, après Pars Vite et Reviens tard...
Le meilleur, après Pars Vite et Reviens tard...
September 15, 2013
(from July, 2011)
Book number five in the Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg series, This Night's Foul Work begins not too long after the events of Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. As the novel opens, we find Adamsberg in his newly-purchased home, talking to his neighbor about the ghost of an evil nun who inhabits the place. But the Commissaire is unphased -- he knows it's the living that he needs to worry about, not the dead. And in this installment, events will prove him right. The squad is working on the case of two dead drug dealers that Adamsberg doesn't want to turn over to the Drug Squad because he knows there's more to the picture, but the team has only a limited amount of time to gather proof before the case is handed off. Then there's someone who is killing large stags in the forest, leaving the antlers but taking out the hearts and chopping them up. If that isn't enough, an elderly serial killer has killed a guard at the prison where she's incarcerated and has escaped, whereabouts unknown. Someone is also digging up graves, but only opening the coffin at the head. Adamsberg and the team must sort out this jumble and make sense of it all before anyone else is killed -- but the task will not be easy. To add to the confusion, a new recruit joins the crime squad, who has an odd head of hair and speaks in twelve-syllable alexandrines, which must have been a great deal of fun for translator Sian Reynolds. As if Jean-Baptiste and the squad don't have enough to deal with re the bizarre string of crimes, the new recruit seems to have it in for Adamsberg based on something that happened from childhood days. And then there's Adamsberg's off again, off again relationship with Camille.
Adamsberg and his colleagues at the Crime Squad in Paris are run ragged in this installment. Danglard, the walking repository of knowledge, has to step in and keep Adamsberg on track when he tends to wander off; Violette Retancourt, the lieutenant who once saved Adamsberg's life, has an amazing ability to "channel her energy," a skill that serves her well in this story; and there are a host of others, each with his or her own individual talents that makes the Crime Squad the unusual group that it is. The character portraits are amazingly drawn and are the most successful element of every novel in this series, although at times you might believe you're sitting at the table with Alice at the Mad Tea Party rather than at the Brasserie des Philosophes as the squad plans strategy.
To be honest, the plotlines are all highly improbable and a bit convoluted, and there are some scenes that I can only describe as "yeah, right. Uh-huh. Sure." I must say, however, that despite the silliness and the required suspension of belief, I liked this one. I could tell that the author was having a great deal of fun here in terms of both personality and plot -- and it paid off for me. Vargas' sleight of hand also got the better of me this time -- just when I thought I had it all figured out, she threw a curve ball into the works that threw me.
These books may not be the best or most believable mystery/crime fiction novels out there, but once you get started on the series, you won't be able to stop. They're definitely among the best for character portrayal and development, and that will be enough to take your mind off the whole implausible storyline. Besides, they're quite fun and become addicting after a while.
Book number five in the Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg series, This Night's Foul Work begins not too long after the events of Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. As the novel opens, we find Adamsberg in his newly-purchased home, talking to his neighbor about the ghost of an evil nun who inhabits the place. But the Commissaire is unphased -- he knows it's the living that he needs to worry about, not the dead. And in this installment, events will prove him right. The squad is working on the case of two dead drug dealers that Adamsberg doesn't want to turn over to the Drug Squad because he knows there's more to the picture, but the team has only a limited amount of time to gather proof before the case is handed off. Then there's someone who is killing large stags in the forest, leaving the antlers but taking out the hearts and chopping them up. If that isn't enough, an elderly serial killer has killed a guard at the prison where she's incarcerated and has escaped, whereabouts unknown. Someone is also digging up graves, but only opening the coffin at the head. Adamsberg and the team must sort out this jumble and make sense of it all before anyone else is killed -- but the task will not be easy. To add to the confusion, a new recruit joins the crime squad, who has an odd head of hair and speaks in twelve-syllable alexandrines, which must have been a great deal of fun for translator Sian Reynolds. As if Jean-Baptiste and the squad don't have enough to deal with re the bizarre string of crimes, the new recruit seems to have it in for Adamsberg based on something that happened from childhood days. And then there's Adamsberg's off again, off again relationship with Camille.
Adamsberg and his colleagues at the Crime Squad in Paris are run ragged in this installment. Danglard, the walking repository of knowledge, has to step in and keep Adamsberg on track when he tends to wander off; Violette Retancourt, the lieutenant who once saved Adamsberg's life, has an amazing ability to "channel her energy," a skill that serves her well in this story; and there are a host of others, each with his or her own individual talents that makes the Crime Squad the unusual group that it is. The character portraits are amazingly drawn and are the most successful element of every novel in this series, although at times you might believe you're sitting at the table with Alice at the Mad Tea Party rather than at the Brasserie des Philosophes as the squad plans strategy.
To be honest, the plotlines are all highly improbable and a bit convoluted, and there are some scenes that I can only describe as "yeah, right. Uh-huh. Sure." I must say, however, that despite the silliness and the required suspension of belief, I liked this one. I could tell that the author was having a great deal of fun here in terms of both personality and plot -- and it paid off for me. Vargas' sleight of hand also got the better of me this time -- just when I thought I had it all figured out, she threw a curve ball into the works that threw me.
These books may not be the best or most believable mystery/crime fiction novels out there, but once you get started on the series, you won't be able to stop. They're definitely among the best for character portrayal and development, and that will be enough to take your mind off the whole implausible storyline. Besides, they're quite fun and become addicting after a while.
January 3, 2016
Ella siempre lo vuelve a hacer. Tramas sutilmente dispersas, lineas que se bifurcan y se vuelven a bifurcar, historias que suenan a cuento chino, ¿De dónde sale esto? (o WTF) y de repente ¡Luz! todo cobra sentido. Con erudición e imaginación (una mixtura fantástica) Fred Vargas nos relata nuevos episodios en la vida y la carrera del comisario Adamsberg: un fantasma en su casa, aparentemente llamada Clarisa, una dulce monja que asesinaba a quienes iban a su casa atraídos por la promesa de una entrada segura al Paraíso. Y una Sombra, una enfermera que ha asesinado a varios ancianos y que, en una inesperada diversificación de intereses, ahora parece fascinada pr asesinar vírgenes y profanar sus tumbas, arrancar corazones de ciervos y castrar gatos. Un nuevo policía en la Brigada que busca algo... ¿Venganza, tal vez? Y un forense con "vapores" y el pasado que, insistente, se empeña en regresar. Ustedes verán..para mí, cinco estrellas para uno de los libros de Fred Vargas que más me han gustado.
July 14, 2016
Je retrouve avec bonheur le commissaire Adamsberg et son équipe Cette série vaut plus pour son écriture et la peinture de personnalités très "françaises" que pour l'intrigue policière parfois un peu trop tirée par les cheveux (encore que souvent les motivations humaines ont de quoi surprendre !)
J'adore la façon d'écrire de VARGAS, les images employées toujours renouvelées, les pensées intimes dévoilées ; les comportements attachés aux régions à la fois particuliers et ordinaires, bref toute une atmosphère qui m'oblige à prévoir une longue après midi ou soirée de lecture car je suis happé et incapable de lâcher le livre avant le mot fin.
J'adore la façon d'écrire de VARGAS, les images employées toujours renouvelées, les pensées intimes dévoilées ; les comportements attachés aux régions à la fois particuliers et ordinaires, bref toute une atmosphère qui m'oblige à prévoir une longue après midi ou soirée de lecture car je suis happé et incapable de lâcher le livre avant le mot fin.
March 15, 2019
Everything. The book, the cat, the third virgin, the bits of bone, the whole bloody lot. It's a complete load of bollocks
I have just read a series of chapters in which a police tracking squad, complete with officers in helicopters, in cars and on bikes, attaches a tracking device to a domestic cat and follows it for 38km to find a missing colleague. In the course of their pursuit, they stop while the cat has a short nap and also have officers knock out some semi-wild dogs with their bare hands. That should be sufficient for the review but the quote above, taken from one of the characters verbatim, sums up the rest.
I have just read a series of chapters in which a police tracking squad, complete with officers in helicopters, in cars and on bikes, attaches a tracking device to a domestic cat and follows it for 38km to find a missing colleague. In the course of their pursuit, they stop while the cat has a short nap and also have officers knock out some semi-wild dogs with their bare hands. That should be sufficient for the review but the quote above, taken from one of the characters verbatim, sums up the rest.
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