Vargas is practically a household name in her native France, with each of her books storming up the bestseller lists and staying there for months at a time. It’s almost unbelievable that in the English-speaking world we’re not equally as crazy about her. Her characters are fantastic: Inspector Adamsberg with his unconventional Zen-like methods and problematic love life; or wine-swilling Danglard, his oh-so-methodical counterpart, who finds his colleague a perpetual nightmare - but loves him to death too! A new character in this book is a detective by the name of Veyrenc, who recites twelve syllable alexandrines by Racine to himself - to keep the disorder of the world at bay!

Vargas, before she turned to crime writing a practising archaeologist, is here in her familiar territory - some ‘regular’ murders that don’t look quite right and lead to forensic investigation, a macabre slaying of a deer, a disturbed grave, a “haunted” house from the 18th century. But really what one is reading Vargas for is her wonderful ability to paint pen portraits of people, to capture somehow the essence of their lives in a manner we don’t expect from a conventional police procedural. Beyond that there is the loving portryal of the quirks and idiosyncrasies of - especially regional - France, and a particular delight in describing realms of knowledge that the average person has never thought about before. Funny, poetic, philosophical, clever - and absolutely compulsive: welcome to the world of Fred ( the diminutive of Frederique, if you were wondering!) Vargas - you’ll be hooked!