Thread: Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?
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Old 03-28-2012, 02:15 PM   #12748
WT Sharpe
Bah, humbug!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poohbear_nc View Post
I accidentally discovered a brilliantly weird detective series that I was totally unaware of - and have no idea how I missed it! The Commissaire Adamsberg series by Fred Vargas - I haven't read lyrical yet weird writing of this caliber in a loooooong time - and I'm speaking of the English translation of the French original text. Vargas must have a quite differently wired brain -- her (yes, Fred is short for Frédérique) characters and plots combine the macabre and the slapstick and the sublime. For instance, in the first book The Chalk Circle Man, the main characters/suspects are an ichthyologist who follows strangers through the streets of Paris, a handsome blind man who helps sighted people cross the street, an old lady devoted to answering personal ads, etc. Plus a mysterious stranger, who may or may not be a murderer, that draws blue chalk circles around debris on the sidewalk at night. Plus a lead detective who eschews logic but can read people's intents. With a sidekick that gets drunk every afternoon.

Unfortunately, only the last book in the series is available as an ebook (AFAIK), but I had to break down & get the rest in paperback - they are just too delicious - I have to read all of them now!

Highly recommended!
I found that Fred Vargas was born in Paris in 1957. My first thought was, "She's pretty old. Wonder if she's still alive?" My second thought was "I was born in 1950."

Damn. I'm old. How did that happen?

Anyway, I downloaded a sample of the only Commissaire Adamsberg they had available (An Uncertain Place: A Commissaire Adamsberg Mystery by Fred Vargas and Sian Reynolds).
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