L'Homme à l'envers

Commissaire Adamsberg #2

by Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas griffe cet écrit au loup d'une prose incisive et singulière. Non contente de faire la peau au polar franchouillard, Fred Vargas le hisse au sommet. La meute des crime writers anglo-saxons n'a qu'à bien se tenir ! Le Monde des Livres


Le mardi, il y eut quatre brebis égorgées à Ventebrune, dans les Alpes.

Et le jeudi, neuf à Pierrefort.

Un loup solitaire ? Roué, cruel, avec son cul bas sur ses pattes grises ? La Bête du Mercantour.

Mais au village de Saint-Victor-du-Mont, tous n'y croient pas, à la Bête. Ce n'est pas une Bête. C'est un homme. Un loup-garou.

Elle était étendue dans la paille crottée, sur le dos, les bras écartés, la chemise de nuit remontée jusqu'aux genoux. À la gorge, une blessure avait laissé échapper un flot de sang.

À Paris, devant son poste, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg – le rêveur et sylvestre commissaire de L'Homme aux cercles bleus – guette les nouvelles du Mercantour. Il ferme les yeux. Son enfance pyrénéenne, la voix des vieux...

Comme des tisons, mon gars, comme des tisons ça fait, les yeux du loup, la nuit.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, France, Thriller, Detective, Mystery Thriller

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 18, 1999

About the author

Fred 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.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Another terrific novel by Fred Vargas. (And the hits, they just keep on comin'...)

Can you imagine being so disordered in mind that you would think this was only worth a 3-star rating? I almost made that mistake.

I was certainly enjoying the book well enough, but occasionally would slip into a, "Meh. Has Vargas lost her lustre for me, already? "

I think it had more to do with the werewolf theme. "Werewolves ... pshaw!"

If you hear him howling around your kitchen door
Better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again

A not-so-little "old-ish" lady did get mutilated late at night. I would have been thrilled with this turn of events, when I was 13, but now, not so much. I've seen enough werewolves in real life to not get all shaken up about them when I encounter them in fiction.

So, merrily I went, like Little Red Riding Hood's older, wiser sister, thinking I was just tripping my way to a very mediocre, petite surprise ending.

And then .... Aaaaoooooo .... werewolves of London ... jumped out at me in the mountain regions of France!

"Well done, Vargas!" I thought. "You really pulled it off."

It turns out she hadn't been stringing me along -- and she had told me about it quite early in the book. Quite early. And I didn't see. I didn't pay any attention at all because I was too focused on the werewolf sipping his pina colada at Trader Vic's.

How could I have been so unaware? I'm usually pretty good (very good) at figuring it all out quite early in the game, but this time ... nothing. Well, maybe just the tiniest whisper, but I dismissed it right away because I thought I was imagining things. Reading about werewolves in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere will tend to raise the hackles even if you are a big girl who says she's too realistic/wise/canny to know that there are werewolves out there. I dismissed it so completely that when the werewolf jumped out, I can honestly say I hadn't seen the forest for the trees. That forest, where the werewolf had been hiding.

There really was a hairy handed gent, who'd previously run amok in Kent.

Once again, Vargas hits it home for me!

[SVETLANA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Fred Vargas's book and I liked it.

Commissaire Adamsberg is a very intuitive person. He is hiding from an assassin who promised to kill him. His old love Camila asked him to help solve a mystery about a presumed werewolf killing sheep and people in the South of France. When mystery is solved we find an unexpected story behind it.

The book is a bit different from most thrillers, but it is very nice, poetic and with some humour in it. It makes me want to know more about Commissaire Adamsberg and read as many books from this series as I would have the possibility to get my hands on.

[Justo Martiañez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leído en 2019.
Otra de las historias imposibles de Fred Vargas. Ecologismo, lobos, leyendas, asesinatos, el Comisario Adamsberg, su peculiar forma de investigar y sus fantasmas personales que le persiguen en cada uno de sus libros. Todo esto mezclado da lugar a un buen libro, que sólo podría salir de la pluma y de la imaginación de esta escritora de estilo peculiar e incalificable que a mi personalmente, me encanta.
Es el segundo libro de la serie Adamsberg, por lo que el estilo no está totalmente consolidado aún y no es de los mejores de la saga, pero cumple sobradamente.
Tengo que reconocer que no caí en la posible solución de la trama hasta casi el final....
Recomendable, como todos sus libros.

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decir que yo (sí, YO) sospeché el final de la historia casi desde el principio parece poco halagüeño para este (y para cualquier) libro. Sin embargo, sigue contando con la marca registrada de la autora: personajes imposibles e inexplicablemente creíbles y queribles, la mística, la erudición,el humor (en fin, Fred Vargas) Solo por eso, leerlo vale la pena.

[Lyubov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Това не се издържа. Овце, върколаци и отчайваща френска хигиена, която в настоящия момент, ми идва още по-непоносима.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeking Whom He May Devour is book number two in Fred Vargas' series featuring Commissaire Adamsberg of the French police nationale, following The Chalk-Circle Man. In 2005, it was nominated for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. This novel is another one which I'd label as "crime light," and actually reminds me a great deal of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series. There are a host of quirky characters, a bit of humor, a chief inspector who isn't anywhere close to what one would consider normal, and a lot of local color. Also like the Montalbano series, my sense is that these books aren't written to focus mainly on the crime elements or the police procedural aspects, but rather on the people who populate these novels.

The small village of Saint-Victor in The French Alps is the setting for this adventure, which begins with the report of the deaths of four sheep. This took place at Ventebrune, on Tuesday; on Thursday, nine more were found savaged at Pierrefort. As the number of dead sheep increases, the villagers begin to suspect that the culprit is a rogue wolf that roams the mountains. But after the savage death of Suzanne Rosselin -- the owner of the breeding station just west of Saint-Victor -- there are those who begin to suspect that perhaps it's something not of this world, and that the real killer is a werewolf. Suspicion falls on one Massart, who works in the municipal slaughterhouse, keeps to himself in his shack, and is rarely seen in the village. But what really makes some believe in Massart as a werewolf is the fact that he has no body hair. "Smooth-skinned as a choirboy," he fits the bill: the mark of the werewolf is that he wears his hair on the inside, and at night he "turns himself around and his hairy coat appears." This, as one person notes, makes him an "inside-out man," which reflects the original French title of this novel. After Suzanne's death Massart vanishes, leaving behind only a map with a specifically-marked route that includes the sites of the previous sheep slaughters. Convinced that it's their duty to go after Massart and rid the French countryside of this werewolf killer, two unlikely companions decide to go after him. First, there's Suzanne's adopted son Soliman, who had been found at the the village church as a baby. Soliman is black, and the villagers were a bit bewildered at seeing a black baby just left there, and it wasn't until Suzanne came along and picked him up that he was comforted. Suzanne had spent a great deal of time teaching Soliman about his African roots, and Soliman is constantly spouting often unfathomable African legends to apply to various situations. Second is old Watchee, Suzanne's shepherd at the breeding station. And to drive the old (and very stinky) cattle truck, Soliman and Watchee recruit Camille, the elusive, on-again/off-again love of Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg's life, who is now living in the village, composing music for a soap opera and working as a plumber. Her current love interest is a Canadian scientist who studies wolves in the wild, currently in the Mercantour National Park in France, near the village. As the strange trio sets out on the road, there are even more deaths, and they begin to realize that this project is beyond them. They need to find some help ...a

"special sort of policeman. A very special flic. A flic who'd pass on all the info about giving us any grief, and who'd let us carry on tracking the vampire down.

And as it just so happens, Camille knows just the guy -- Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, in Paris, at the police headquarters in the fifth arrondissement."


While the mystery itself is a bit predictable, it's not really the who that counts, but rather the getting there that makes this story. Adamsberg is no ordinary cop -- he deals quite a bit in intuition, has his senses alert to odd situations, and from time to time gets little insights out of the blue as to when things are important. He has a good rapport with his colleagues, although they find him a bit strange, and an even better rapport with the common man. The rest of the characters are quirky, as is the dialogue from time to time. If not laugh-out-loud funny at times, there is a great deal of humor interlaced with the serious business of finding a killer and bringing the culprit to justice. The author is really good at bringing out the sense of place, down to the hairpin curves on a French mountain road or the stink of sheep fat. In short, there are many things to experience within this novel, and it's obvious that Vargas really enjoys writing these books.

As I said earlier, this is a novel on the lighter side of crime, and so should appeal to readers who tend to stay away from more hardcore crime fiction. It's also a book for readers who enjoy quirky crimes, quirky people and a good laugh here and there, much (as also noted above) like the Salvo Montalbano series. Definitely recommended. I'm already on book #4 (Wash This Blood Clean From My Hands) on my way to the latest, An Uncertain Place, which is on this year's CWA International Dagger shortlist. You should probably read the series in order of publication, not English translation, because the whole Adamsberg/Camille relationship starts in book one and may be difficult to follow otherwise.

[José Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo primero que me llamó la atención de este libro es la peculiar forma de escribir de la autora. Hasta ahora no había leído ningún libro de Fred Vargas, y ya de entrada me ha resultado peculiar, distinto, incluso difícil de calificar.
La historia mezcla leyendas, hombres lobo, naturaleza y tiene su toque de novela negra, aunque ciertamente la trama policiaca tarda en aparecer en la historia. Y aquí juega un papel destacado el comisario Adamsberg, un policía con una personalidad algo taciturna, tremendamente reservado, que siempre parece estar en otro mundo pero con una intuición por encima de la media.
Al libro tampoco le falta humor, en pequeñas dosis, tampoco nos engañemos, y unos personajes excéntricos y difíciles de imaginar que emprenderán un viaje casi imposible en un curioso camión en busca de respuestas y una cierta venganza.
Leeré más libros de esta autora porque este me ha dejado con ciertas dudas

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Голям почитател съм на серията за полицейския комисар-чешит Жан-Батист Адамсберг, защото френската авторка Фред Варгас определено знае как да чупи жанровите канони. Препоръчвам на всички, които си падат по нестандартно овъртолени сюжети и шантаво чувство за хумор.

В настоящия случай се разследват убийства, приписвани на... върколак, като заглавието на романа идва от вярванията, че в човешкия си облик тези същества нямат външно окосмяване, защото козината им е обърната навътре и се появява чак при трансформацията им. В миналото, обяснява ни Варгас, която освен талантлив криминален автор, е дипломиран историк и археолог, заподозрените в ликантропия люде били щателно разпаряни от гърлото до чатала, за да се провери дали наистина имат скрито окосмяване... и, уви, макар в повечето случаи да не се намирали преки доказателства, потвърждаващи въпросното поверие, щетите, нанесени върху телата им, не можели да бъдат поправени... Накратко, доволно харесах тая книжка. 4,5/5

[Trin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull dull dull mystery about a female film editor/plumber and two local sheep farmers/eccentrics pursuing a murderous “werewolf” across the French countryside. The werewolf’s on foot, and the three of them are in a rickety old truck repurposed from transporting sheep, so the chase is about as high-speed and exciting as being stuck behind a farm vehicle on a narrow road. I just did not get this book at all. The characters had all these weird traits—one of the shepherds is obsessed with definitions and mythology; the other is, um, old; and as for the editor/plumber, Camille, well…her two chosen careers are “editor” and “plumber,” an unlikely mix to be sure, but Vargas never connected this to anything interesting or profound about her character. She’s an editor and a plumber. Also a part-time amateur werewolf hunter.

Maybe part of the problem I was having was that some of these characters have been featured in Vargas’ earlier books, including Camille and a Commissaire Adamsberg, who’s barely in the first two-thirds of this novel but is supposedly the series’ main character. (I figured this out based on the fact that the front of my copy had “Commisaire Adamsberg Investigates” solemnly imprinted upon it.) Okay, my bad for not reading the other books first, but a talented author can still make her characters come alive whenever they come on stage. Everyone in this book seemed as flat as the landscape was hilly.

It may have also been a bad translation. A clue: there’s an ongoing joke about Camille not being able to remember (or not caring to remember) another character’s dog’s name. There are a lot of puns—I think they’re meant to be puns; jokes, anyway—based on the other, incorrect things she calls this dog. But in English, the dog’s given name is Woof, and none of Camille’s mistakes (or inability to remember the frickin’ name) make any sense based on that moniker. It’s entirely possible that this gag was HILARIOUS in the original French, but in English it’s just…puzzling.

Equally puzzling: why I persisted in reading this book to the end. Maybe it was so I could discover that the killer was exactly who I expected, based on the character serving no other purpose in the narrative.

[Sarmīte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ļoti forša grāmata! Sižets gan nebija nekāds noslēpumainais, bet lielākais pluss - stāsts. Dīvainā kompānija dīvainā vāģī peras pa Francijas kalniem:)) Tas ir tāds stāsts, ko varētu lasīt un lasīt:))))

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeking Whom He May Devour' by French writer Fred Vargas concentrates on the characters more than it does on crimes. Book two in the Commissaire Adamsberg series, it is better translated (?) into English than the first book, The Chalk Circle Man. It continues the pattern of emphasizing the quirkiness of characters, of the crimes, of the plot. Officially mysteries, I believe these novels are more humorous entertainments than they are mysteries. They are like cozies, except the murder descriptions tend to induce an ick! response. However, so far, none of the murders in the two novels has crossed into ewwww! sick bastard! territory.

In the previous novel, Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg kept drifting into memories about an ex-girlfriend, Camille Forestier. In this story, she is actually there in most of the book. She comes back into Adamsberg's life when a werewolf begins tearing sheep apart. Yes, I said werewolf! Or is it a werewolf? The torn-out throats of the sheep have convinced the farmers it is either a large dog or wolf, but as the forensics on the ground is spare, even weird, the farmers begin to think werewolf!

As it happens, Camille's new boyfriend is a Canadian, Lawrence Donald Johnstone. He is a celebrity noted for his documentary studies of Canadian grizzly bears, but he has, for the moment, become fascinated by France's European wolves. He frequents the Mercantour Range in the Alps to study them relying on local guides.

Then, a sheep breeder is found dead, throat torn out! The murder is out of Adamsberg's Paris jurisdiction, but he couldn't help following the bizarre story in the newspapers. When he spots Camille on TV, standing next to a handsome man (Johnstone), wild dogs couldn't stop Adamsberg from starting an investigation! Of course it is only the werewolf suppositions that are of interest. Right? Clues to the murder seem to be pointing to a missing local man with a big dog. A map, with x's - possible future murders? - is discovered in the man's hut. Then, after a second murder matches an x on the map, it seems so.

I think this novel was kinda fun, a mystery road-trip undertaken by oddball characters following a map of murder!

[Peter Dickinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were to put a gun to my head and demand that I explain exactly why I like this book or you will blow my brains out - I would have to make it through the rest of my life with a large empty space in my cranium.

Situation normal there.

I do not know why I liked SWHMD so much. Or even why I bought it. I think it was a combination of the blurb on the back cover and the atmospheric title. I seem to remember thinking that it sounded like a Hammer Horror inspired yarn and saying to myself, "Cool!".

It really is not a Hammer Horror style story. Far from it. It's about an eccentric Parisian detective taking a sabatical in the south of France and uncovering a series of rural murders that the locals have attributed to a werewolf. I've simply never read anything quite like this book. It's so flimsy in nature that it feels almost ethereal. And yet at its heart it is nothing more than a Sunday evening who-dunnit.

All I know is that I really want to spend some time in the south of France drinking wine and herding sheep.

PJD

[Irena Pasvinter · Rating 5 out of 5]

"L'homme à l'envers" a is an atypical mystery featuring an oddball detective. The crime-related plot is unexpected enough, probably even a bit too complex to be realistic, but I enjoyed this novel for the beauty of writing and intricate portrayal of a unique ensemble of characters -- not something you would normally expect from a mystery novel, but this is what makes Fred Vargas's books stand out of the crowd.

P.S. If you are after a hard-boiled action, consider reading another book.

P.P.S. I wrote this short and awkward review in 2014, which now feels almost like in another life. I'm not going to rewrite it now, but I can't help adding that Fred Vargas is a pseudonym of a French historian and archaeologist Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau. By now I've read the whole Commisaire Adamsberg series and all the other fiction by Fred Vargas I could get my hands on. By the way, her books have been translated to many other languages.

[paper0r0ss0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il primo libro della Vargas che ho letto e l'impressione non e' stata delle migliori. Sara' che in questo episodio il commissario Adamsberg ha un ruolo defilato, sara' che non ho ancora afferrato la presunta genialita' dell'autrice, ma la lettura e' andata via lenta e noiosa assai. L'ambientazione e' originale, le Alpi Marittime e parte della Francia centrale, cosi' come il tema del lupo mannaro attrae sempre, ma a parte una trama nel complesso non sorprendente, resta un vago sapore di leziosita' che irrita.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saint Victor, dans le Mercantour : des brebis, du vin blanc, des bergers, des randonneurs, des loups en situation de réintroduction, des mecs qui observent à la jumelle les loups en situation de réintroduction ; lorsque... tout à coup ! Un loup, un énorme loup, aux crocs grands comme ma main, commence à semer la pagaille dans les troupeaux de brebis, et en égorge une dizaine à droite et à gauche. Sur fond de tradition évidemment littéraire (Vigny, Giono, le Petit Chaperon rouge, et tout le tralala) et d'ambiance contemporaine (le procès du loup, les parisiens sont pour le loup, les bergers sont contre le loup, bla, bla), c'est avant tout la parole folklorique, voire mythologique, que Fred Vargas convoque, comme toujours, puisque... tout à coup ! (oui, encore) derrière le loup, on devine un loup garou, qui, lassé des bêtes à laine, s'attaque bientôt à l'homme - ou plutôt à la femme, en la personne d'une bergère au caractère bien trempé.

S'ensuit un drôle de polar, qui n'en est pas vraiment un, puisqu'il n'y a pas d'enquête - le bouc émissaire est désigné dès le début, et n'est pas remis en question dans l'espace du roman -, pas de commissaire - notre cher Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg est à Paris, en train de régler une tout autre histoire, pendant les deux tiers du livre -, et même pas d'événements - puisque les meurtres sont énumérés plus qu'ils ne sont décrits, écrits, vécus. Le lecteur est emmené en voyage, dans une bétaillère imprégnée de suint de mouton, avec Camille, la Chérie d'Adamsberg, un vieux berger, le Veilleux, et le seul Noir du Mercantour, Soliman, l'enfant adopté.

J'aime de tout mon cœur les polars qui n'en sont pas. Vraiment, si on me dit non-enquête, ambiance poétique ou philosophique, lenteur et personnages incongrus, je fonce. J'aime les codes du polar, et j'aime aussi qu'on les détourne ; c'est d'ailleurs pour ça que j'aime Fred Vargas. Malheureusement, ici, ce qui fait d'ordinaire la qualité de ses textes, tout comme leur aspect décalé, manque son coup.
S'il n'y a pas d'enquête, il n'y a qu'à regarder les personnages incongrus, mener une quête incongrue, sans se poser de questions, et à attendre avec eux que ça se passe. L'usage de la répétition, qui donne dans les romans plus tardifs de Vargas un certain cachet authentique, tout comme un gage comique, est ici tellement systématique qu'il fatigue la bienveillante lectrice (mais oui, je parle de moi) (et le Veilleux qui répète "respecte" et "j'aime bien comprendre" toutes les deux lignes... aaah). Les prises de parole d'Adamsberg, voire ses actes, sont écrits avec une certaine complaisance (la scène de la nonne, bon Dieu, mais quel grand humaniste ce commissaire... c'est à pleurer) ; les dialogues amoureux, particulièrement, très ponctués, très niais, m'ont déçue. Et la résolution de l'intrigue, littéralement tombée du ciel, ne donnant aucune satisfaction au lecteur, qui pouvait de toute façon deviner le coupable parmi les quelques personnages qui lui sont présentés, n'a même pas le mérite d'être logique (pourquoi les victimes se baladaient seules dehors, alors que les journaux nationaux leur recommandaient de rester bouclés chez eux ? Qu'on m'explique, ça me travaille).
Reste le plaisir de lecture, car oui, les pages se tournent, bien qu'un peu lentement parfois.

Pour donner à mon tour dans la métaphore lyrico-poético-grotesque, laissez-moi évoquer une tomme de brebis du Mercantour. Au début du fromage, lorsqu'il est encore frais, il y a des bonnes choses dedans, et son goût ne repose que sur la qualité et l'authenticité de ses ingrédients ; mais c'est seulement quand le fromage vieillit qu'il acquiert ses véritables saveurs, qui feront toute sa distinction. Tel un fromage du Mercantour, ce roman contient en germes tout ce qui fera de Vargas une grande romancière, mais ce n'est qu'en mûrissant dans les prochains romans qu'elle saura véritablement se distinguer.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't my usual type of reading material. The novel is a fairly entertaining murder mystery, which is more about the oddball people involved in the novel, rather than the actual detective work. The story involves a plumber/musician and two local sheep farmers randomly tracking down the "werewolf" responsible for butchering the sheep and the murders - in a dilapidated, ancient, and now modified, sheep-transport truck. The characters are eccentric, and marginally entertaining (though I don't think they are supposed to be?), while the actual solving of the mystery leaves a lot to be desired if you like things like clues and logic. Commissaire Adamsberg has an unusual method of investigating, which basically involves letting vague bits of information, random thoughts and conversations, and guess work percolate in his head before spitting out an answer... and then going to look for clues/confirmation. Fun, so long as you don't take the story too seriously.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I've catalogued this as a police procedural, it is only so in that Commissaire Adamsberg is a policeman and there is an investigation, but not until halfway into the story. For the most part, this is a character-rich plot that happens to involve a policeman.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, even though -- or because -- it is written so differently than most books in the crime genre.

Sheep are being mauled and killed. A wolf or mad dog? The local village is concerned, then fear sets in when a woman is killed and it's verified to be an attack similar to that on the sheep. A suggestion that the crimes are an act of a werewolf ramp up speculation and superstition. Few people accept such an explanation, but there is something, or someone, out there responsible for these deaths.

[Gică Andreica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sincer, mă bucur să văd că editura Crime Scene Press continuă să traducă autori francezi, chiar dacă printre cititorii români nu există foarte mult interes pentru aceștia. După ce i-am citit pe Jean-Christophe Grangé și pe Bernard Minier, pe care îi consider doi scriitori geniali, astăzi, cu ocazia unui nou Blog Tour, ne vom opri puțin asupra unui roman de Fred Vargas, o autoare care a apărut, până în prezent, la trei edituri de la noi. Și, pentru ca lucrurile să fie cât se poate de clare, trebuie să specific faptul că „Vârcolacul” este cel de-al doilea volum din seria celebrului Comisar Adamsberg, primul fiind „Omul cu cercurile albastre”, publicat în limba română de Editura TREI, în 2011. Însă, pentru că nu vreau să pierd vremea cu detalii pe care le puteți găsi foarte ușor pe internet, haideți să intrăm în poveste și să vedem despre ce este mai exact vorba în acest impecabil roman detectivistic, ”pastoral”.

Recenzia:
http://www.cartilemele.ro/2022/04/rec...

[Liviu Szoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Din recenzia apărută pe Biblioteca lui Liviu în cadrul blog tourului dedicat publicării în limba română a volumului „Vârcolacul”:

„Adamsberg, despre care voi scrie și mâine mai în detaliu, căci prefer ca astăzi să mă aplec mai mult asupra poveștii Vârcolacului, este un anchetator complet diferit de cei pe care i-ați cunoscut până acum. Asemănător poate doar cu Harry Hole al lui Nesbø, el nu se ghidează după logică, analizând probe și fapte concrete, ci mai mult după instinct. Stă și cugetă pe îndelete, rumegă idei și frânturi de informații complet insignifiante pentru alții, după care sare ca uliul pe un suspect care se dovedește a fi exact făptașul care fusese în tot acel timp sub nasul tuturor, dar care, cameleonic și alunecos ca un șarpe, izbutise să înșele vigilența celor porniți pe urmele sale, neștiind însă că mintea sucită a lui Adamsberg funcționa după alte coordonate și că acesta pândise tocmai indiciul mărunt, manevra greșită, pentru a-l prinde taman când credea că scăpase.

O călătorie inițiatică pentru Soliman, una de regăsire pentru Camille, urmată când și când de canadianul Lawrence pe motocicletă, căci acesta auzise, nu se știe cum, că pe urmele Vârcolacului pornise fostul iubit al lui Camille și, simțindu-și amenințată femela, amușina precum un lup alfa ca nu cumva să vină vreo potaie ca să se dea pe lângă ea, dar și o altă anchetă nonconformistă marca Adamsberg, plus o poveste impecabilă și teribil de alambicată, Vârcolacul confirmă, dacă mai era nevoie, geniul lui Fred Vargas, căreia i se face în sfârșit dreptate prin publicarea, de data aceasta în ordine (promite editorul actual), a extraordinarelor povești cu comisarul Adamsberg. Recomandată!

„- Dimpotrivă, Soliman. Toți amanții lui Camille – pentru că despre Camille este vorba, nu-i așa -, toți amanții lui Camille iau din apa mea și toate amantele mele din apa ei. În amonte nu suntem decât ea și cu mine. În aval se întâmplă să fie multă lume. De aceea apa este mult mai tulbure în josul ei decât mai sus.

– Ah, da, a spus Soliman, perplex.

– Ca să simplific, a spus Adamsberg.

– Așa încât acum tu urci de-a lungul râului tău? a întrebat Soliman ezitând.

Adasmberg a aprobat.

– Așa încât, chiar dacă aș fi făcut acei nenorociți de cincizeci de metri, dacă aș fi putut să pun mâna pe ea, m-aș fi regăsit în aval de sistemul vostru hidrografic de tot rahatul?”

PS: paginile 250-251, cu Catalogul Uneltelor pentru Profesioniști, cu ciomagul aproape magic al Străjerului, cu câinele Mașina de tricotat, cu oaia George Gershwin, cu relația strânsă care se înfiripă, pe de o parte, între Adamsberg și Camille (se reînfiripă, de fapt), iar pe de alta, între Adamsberg și cei doi justițiari, sunt o adevărată dovadă că literatura scrisă de Fred Vargas poate sta oricând, plină de demnitate, alături de marile opere literare nu doar ale genului polițist, ci ale literaturii în general.”

Mai multe: https://wp.me/pz4D9-56Z sau https://bibliotecaluiliviu.ro/2022/03....

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This link is messed up.

Click here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Ευα Μηλιά Κουτσουμπα · Rating 3 out of 5]

Πολύ ωραίο βιβλίο.
Με χιούμορ και μια θρυλική παραμυθένια αυρα αλλά η μετάφραση πολύ κακή.
Έχανα κάποιες φορές το νόημα των προτάσεων.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Sentence: On Tuesday, four sheep were killed at Ventebrune in the French Alps.

Camille is a composer and plumber living in a small French Alp village where sheep are being killer by an unseen beast. The murder of a townswoman raises suspicion of a werewolf. Residents begin to suspect Massart, a loner who came to the area 20 year ago and has now disappeared. The woman’s adopted son and an old shepherd convince Camille to be their driver as they search for Massat. When they find the search impossible on their own, they wish for a very special policeman. Camille, reluctantly, calls upon her former lover, Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsburg, for help.

One of the first things I look for in a book is the characters. For me, they must be well conveyed, strong, unique and, yes, I must be able to, if not like, at least empathize with them. Vargas creates just such characters and it is they who drive the story. I was delighted that we get to know Camille in this book as she was previously, something of a mystery herself. The residents of the village, Suzanne, and particularly the old shepherd and Solomon, with home Camille ventures forth, are wonderfully created with affection, humor. There is also great poignancy to the relationship, particularly with the inclusion of Adamsburgh into the traveling trio.

And humor there is, but the wry, dry humor of the author’s voice. Vargas has a wonderful voice. I love her imagery and descriptions, particularly in the opening when she anthropomorphizes the wolves. She brings the story, location and people to life.

If there is a weakness, it is in the plot but only because the characters are so strong. However, I found the further I progressed into the story, the more intrigued I was by the mystery. I knew the killer is not a werewolf; the story is not horror or fantasy. I did suspect the villain but appreciated that being given details as to the motive behind the crimes as well as uncovering the killer. There is also a second thread to the story which adds suspense.

There is no question I have become a Vargas fan. I highly recommend giving her a try but start with either her standalone “The Three Evangelists,” or “The Chalk Circle Man,” the first book in the Adamsberg series.

SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR (Pol Proc-Comm. Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg-France-Cont) – VG+
Vargas, Fred – 3rd in series
Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, ©1999, Trade Paperback – ISBN: 9780743284028

[DIMELE Vidinė Vėjo pusė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biški apsišoviau, pradėdama skaityti nuo antros dalies, seriją apie detektyvą Adamsbergą, nors nėra visos dalys išverstos, o serija didelė, apėmė liūdesys, nes autorės rašymo stilius labai patiko. Te neapgauna tas kišeninio formato ar savaitgalio detektyvo firmatas. Autorė yra žymi mokslininkė, tyrinėtoja, archeologė. Tad nenuostabu, kad skaityti jos knygą man buvo tikras kaifas. Pirkau dėl pavadinimo, kuris man priminė vaikystėje matytą sceną iš filmo apie mešką žmogaus kailyje, Lokis beros vadinosi. Galėtų būti išversta daugiau autorės knygų, jau medžioju tai kas yra. Bet sugrįžkim prie knygos. Merkantūro, tai toks Prancūzijos nacionalinis parkas, vilkai čia groja pirmu smuiku. Jie yra įtariami pjaunantys avis, o paskui perėję ant žmonių, bet vilkai žmonių nepuola, todėl kažkas čia ne taip, juntama žmogaus ranka. Personažai ir jų bendravimas čia yra kažkas tokio, galėčiau išcituoti visą knygą, turbūt ir vertėja puikiai pasidarbavo, bet prancūzų humoras kitoks, man labai limpa, jo čia netrūksta, skaityti nenuobodu. Pati istorija net nueina į antrą planą, bet man ji niekad nėra svarbiausia. Kaip yra sakoma, kelias iki finišo įdomesnis už patį finišą. Aš čia perfrazavau. Jei nematėte filmo, turbūt nematėte, bet labai rekomenduoju, paremtas tikra istorija The Journey is the Destination 2016. Tai va tokia ir ši knyga. Prasipažinsiu pabaigoje man buvo šmėstelėjęs mįslės raktas, bet nuvijau jį, kaip įkyrią musę, nesąmonę.
"Visi Jos meilužiai semia iš mano upės, o visos mano meilužės- iš jos. Aukštupyje tėra tik ji ir aš. Žemupyje žmonių kartais daugoka. Dėl to vanduo apačioje labiau drumstas negu viršuje."

[Maša · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sheep of the Alps are getting savaged by what appears to be a giant wolf. A group of vivid characters get interested and starts to pursue the issue.

The good: I found myself lazing about with this book, making slow progress and enjoying the characters. Once again, it's more about the setting and the characters than about the mystery itself.

There are some really powerful scenes, as well as humorous and witty lines of dialogue.

The bad: Well, the mystery is pretty slim, so you find yourself wondering about the assumed Adamsberg's genius.

The ugly: Nada.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

2022 reread: 4 stars

Once again, I enjoyed this second installment in the series even though Adamsberg wasn't a central character until well over half way through the book. The lack of Adamsberg was made up by two other quirky characters - Soliman and Watchee - and upon reading the last page I realized that I will now miss reading about them in the next book. Vargas has such a wonderful way of creating interesting characters and writing scenes where their back and forth interactions and dialogue has as much to do with my enjoyment of her books as does the mystery at hand.

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Wolf geht um im Mercantour, den Seealpen zwischen Frankreich und Italien. Zahlreiche Schafe hat er bereits gerissen und er wird immer mutiger. Als in einem Dörfchen die Schäferin Suzanne ermordet wird, nimmt der Fall eine neue Dimension an und Suzannes Adoptivsohn und ihr Wacher wollen die Tat nicht ungesühnt lassen. Inzwischen hat sich nämlich die Überzeugung breitgemacht, dass nicht ein wildes Tier, sondern nur ein Werwolf für die grausamen Tötungen verantwortlich sein kann. Auch die Handwerkerin Camille und ihr kanadischer Freund und Tierforscher Lawrence sind hiervon überzeugt. Nur ein Mann kommt hierfür infrage: der Eigenbrötler Massart war jahrelang verschwunden und tauchte plötzlich wieder in der Gegend auf, ohne jedoch den Bewohnern zu nahe zu kommen. Aus der Ferne beobachtet Kommissar Adamsberg den Fall, nicht nur die Geschichte des Wolfs findet er spannend, er erkennt, dass dies ein Fall für ihn wird, denn er hat Camille wiedererkannt.

Kein typischer Adamsberg Roman aus der Feder von Fred Vargas; der Kommissar bleibt zu lange Randfigur, die eigentliche Handlung spielt sich in den Bergdörfern mit ihren kuriosen Bewohnern ab. Diese sind es auch, die den großen Reiz der Geschichte ausmachen, denn sie sind jede einzelne detailreich gezeichnet und herrlich verschroben: Suzannes afrikanischer Adoptivsohn Soliman, der stets im Wörterbuch liest und Definitionen liefert; Camille mit ihrem „Katalog für handwerkliches Arbeitsgerät“ und ihrer pragmatischen Herangehensweise auch an größte Katastrophen oder der Wacher, der abends mit seinen Schafen telefoniert, um deren psychische Gesundheit zu sichern.

Was die Figuren einerseits liebenswert macht, strengt beim Lesen jedoch auch etwas an. Sie sind die Einsamkeit der Berge gewohnt und neigen eher zu einsilbiger Kommunikation. Das hat Fred Vargas glaubwürdig umgesetzt, macht aber die Dialoge der Figuren zum Teil zu einer echten Herausforderung, da sie vielfach nur aus Fragmenten und abgehackten Sätzen bestehen.

Der Fall letztlich ist clever konstruiert und die Spannung steigert sich stetig. Erst mit Adamsbergs Einmischung lichtet sich langsam der Nebel und der perfide Plan des Mörders kommt zum Vorschein. Viele Indizien und Spuren wurden gelegt, die man jedoch als Leser nicht unmittelbar wahrnimmt und erst spät erkennt, wie präzise alles geplant war und miteinander zusammenhängt. Ein Regionalkrimi der ganz besonderen Art, da er geschickt den mystischen Glauben der naturverbundenen Menschen mit einem Kriminalfall verbindet.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This just feels like it's trying much too hard to be quirky. I got pretty distracted by the quirkiness, and so the ending was a surprise to me, but it feels like Ms Vargas was cheating. (I went back and re-read some passages, and she was most definitely misleading the reader, in a BIG way. For example (and you can't read this, it will spoil the mystery entirely): In the first chapter, Johnstone muses to himself, "Johnstone had never imagined that Europe - so pinched, so wasted and tamed - could have anything of interest to offer him. He had not taken on this documentary job in the Mercantour Ranger very gladly." WHAT? We learn at the end that going to Europe to track down his father's enemies had been his lifelong dream, and taking that documentary job was his entire PLAN!) At the same time, the ending was satisfying. (Even though I'm annoyed that Vargas cheated.) Basically, the last third of the book, with Adamsberg on the case, is great! The first two thirds is ... not so great. It averages out to 3 stars.

TOO QUIRKY, OR COMPLETELY CHARMING? I can't decide. I do like Adamsberg, so I think this is the charming part, but I was frustrated at how passive he was in this book. He felt more active and dynamic in The Chalk Circle Man

For that is how Adamsberg found his ideas - simply by waiting for them to turn up. When one rose before his eyes like a dead fish on the crest of a wave, he picked it up, turned it over, asked himself whether he needed this item at the moment, whether it was of any interest. Adamsberg never thought actively, he found it quite sufficient to daydream and then to sort his catch, like a fisherman scrabbling about clumsily in the bottom of a net and finally picking the prawn out of the mess of sand, seaweed, pebbles, and shells. Adamsberg's thoughts contained plenty of seaweed and sand, and he didn't always know how to avoid getting caught in the mess. He needed to jettison a lot of it, evacuate great heaps. He was aware that his own mind produced a mixed bag of mental items of uneven size and value, and that things did not necessarily happen the same way for other people. He had noticed that the difference between his thinking and the mental products of Danglard, his number two, was identical to the difference between a netful from the riverbed and a fishmonger's neatly laid-out slab. ... That is how Adamsberg used his brain, like an ocean that you trust entirely to feed you well, but that you've long ago given up trying to tame.

Inspector Adamsberg doesn't join the full plot until two-thirds of the way in. And yeah, I knew that this wasn't so strong in the mystery department, but still. This is "an Inspector Adamsberg mystery." And I'm reading it for Adamsberg. I was kind of bored until he showed up. I like his quirkiness, but I like it best when played off a "straight man" - everyone else needs to be average in order for his charm to shine. But everyone in this book is quirky! I got tired really fast of Johnstone repeatedly complaining that the French stink. What does Camille even see in him? He is a sexist, xenophobic lout. Camille reading an A to Z tool catalog for "comfort reading" just seemed forced, and it was ridiculous that Johnstone disapproved and she had to hide it from him, along with every other habit of hers. She seemed to be hiding her entire self just to keep him happy. It seemed out of character for her to put up with him. And I got tired really fast of Soliman's habit of blurting out dictionary definitions. Especially since this habit of his wasn't consistent - there was no sign of it, until it was almost all he said.

I also have a lot of questions about how accurate the French-to-English translation is. To start with, what's up with that title?? How did the relatively concise and intriguing "L'homme a l'envers" become "Seeking Whom He May Devour"? The first phrase ("inside out man") is found once within the text, but the latter is found twice. So I get where the titles come from, but why the one in French and the other in English? Perhaps this Biblical phrase is a common phrase in French, that just becomes clunky in English?

Secondly, why do the characters hunting a werewolf often refer to him as a "vampire"? Is this a mistranslation? is it a synonym in French that only sounds jarring in English? are the characters confused? does this imply that he is a monster of indeterminate type?

Thirdly, Watchee's dog's name, Woof. We are told he was named by choosing a random word in the dictionary, and woof means the threads running horizontally on a loom.

"Woof? Is that his name?" she asked.

"I picked it from the dictionary, arbitrarily, when he was born," Soliman explained. "'Woof. n. A. The threads that cross from side to side of the loom. B. A woven fabric. C. The texture of a fabric."

"I see," Camille said.

(That bit about spouting dictionary definitions is far too frequent with Soliman, and the bit about randomly choosing names from the dictionary comes up again, too. Not charming. Just annoying.) In English, that works. Woof is both a term in weaving, and the sound a dog makes, and also very similar to "wolf." I've known a dog named "Wolfy." But this doesn't work in French. So what was the dog's French name? "Ouah"? or "Aboyer"? or "Trame"? or "Loup"? Or something else entirely? Normally I wouldn't wonder so much about a minor character's name, but there are several instances of wordplay related to this dog's name (calling him "wart" and "hoof" and "heel," etc), so it got my attention.

The source of Title #1 ("L'homme a l'envers"):

"It's the mark of the werewolf. The only mark. He's got his hair on the inside because he's an inside-out person. At night he turns himself round and his hairy coat reappears."

And we have Title #2! (This is the second instance, this phrase is used earlier in the book, too - it's a biblical reference.)

"Elsewhere the red line keeps away from towns. So if it goes via Bourg-en-Bresse, there must be a reason for it. Seeking whom he may devour."

Clunky.

[Claudiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

primul roman scris de Fred Vargas pe care il citesc.
schimbarea de la romanul politist anglo-saxon la cel frantuzesc mi-a placut, desi, pe alocuri, mi-a fost dor de reteta pe care o stiam.
mi-a placut premiza cartii, faptul ca actiunea a fost mutata de la Paris undeva in mediul rural, in Franta pe care nu o prea vedem sau daca o vedem, o vedem in filmulete despre idilismul si pitorescul locului.
in ceea ce il priveste pe detectivul Adamsberg, cred ca trebuie sa mai citesc un roman pentru a-mi face o parere. din pacate, nu e indeajuns de bine schitat ca sa iti poti da seama de ce fel de om este, dar nu este descris nici minimalist cum este descris Maigret, de exemplu. tocmai pentru ca nu e nici, nici, sentimentul este nesatisfacator.
referitor la poveste, dupa ce Adamsberg dezvaluie din senin o informatie, imediat mi-a dat seama de criminal si de motivatia lui. aici s-ar fi putut face lucrurile mai bine: faptul ca Adamsberg afla informatii pe fundal, in culise, face ca sfarsitul sa fie foarte pregatit, prea pus cu mana.
altfel, recomand romanul. mi-au placut dialogurile, personajele secundare au fost atipice, dar simpatice.

[Charlotte L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai adoré retrouver la plume très particulière de Fred Vargas, son humour et sa façon bien à elle de jouer avec les mots de façon si poétique, et j'aime ses personnages à la fois bruts de décoffrage et philosophes. Mais l'intrigue en elle-même ne m'a pas passionnée, je l'ai trouvée plutôt linéaire, elle ne m'a pas tenue en haleine. Ce n'est donc pas mon favori jusqu'ici mais je reste fan de cette autrice !

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far, this is not the best book of this series, still more to come.

4* L'Homme aux cercles bleus (Commissaire Adamsberg, #1)
4* Have Mercy on Us All (Commissaire Adamsberg, #4)
4* Dans les bois éternels (Commissaire Adamsberg, #7)
3* Seeking Whom He May Devour (Commissaire Adamsberg, #2)
TR Les quatre fleuves (Commissaire Adamsberg, #3)
TR Coule la Seine (Commissaire Adamsberg, #5)
TR Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand (Commissaire Adamsberg, #6)
TR Un lieu incertain (Commissaire Adamsberg, #8)
TR The Ghost Riders of Ordebec (Commissaire Adamsberg, #9)
TR Temps glaciaires (Commissaire Adamsberg #10)