Sur la dalle: Thriller (Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, 12)

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The epistolary novel Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls (Andersen, Sept) explores the hopes, struggles and first loves of three friends at the end of the 19th century, who have left boarding school for very different lives. If you are interested in trying one of Vargas’ books, I would start with the first Adamsberg novel, The Chalk Circle Man. It’s short, fast-paced, and one of her best (it won an International Dagger award.) Vargas doesn’t spare us the grisly details of outrageous crimes committed against defenseless girls and women, but never have I ever wanted to be in a mystery novel before. The characterizations of police officers and villagers are so full of personality, intelligence, and humor that one cannot help but wish these folks were by one’s side—or at least televised. Sin embargo, en esta última entrega no le ha salido del todo redonda la jugada. Por mucho que intentara confundir la trama, el culpable estaba claro desde el principio, y los excesivo giros que ha tratado de imprimir a la narración cansan más que confunden. Es cierto que la casualidad juega a menudo un papel decisivo en sus novelas, pero en esta ocasión son demasiadas casualidades que, además, resultan innecesarias; la trama se podía resolver sin recurrir a ellas. Las tesis pseudopsicológicas que se manejan tampoco acaban de cuajar.

For Adamsberg, these haunting crimes hold the key to proving that the three men were targeted by an ingenious serial killer. His team, however, is not convinced. He must put his reputation on the line to trace the murderer before the death toll rises... A sprawling survey of the evolution of women’s bodies over 200m years, Cat Bohannon’s deeply researched book covers everything, as the author herself puts it, “from tits to toes”. Partly, it’s a bid to correct the “male norm” – the fact that scientists default to male bodies, be they mouse or human, when studying things in the lab. That means that models of normal functioning and disease all skew male, as do the treatments that are then developed. But this isn’t just a book for women: Bohannon invites you to “think of yourself: to think about where your body comes from, how the evolution of biological sex shapes it – whether you identify as a man, a woman, or another gender”. Sono una grande fan di F. Vargas, ho letto tutti i suoi libri e ho accolto con gioia un nuovo romanzo dopo anni in cui non avevo più nulla di suo da leggere. Per questo forse il mio parere è fin troppo positivo, mi rendo conto che è influenzato dall'entusiasmo delle letture precedenti. Following an unexpected meeting with a strange old lady, Adamsberg’s investigations take him to the south of France, where he discovers a precedent to the deaths connected to this normally shy and harmless spider. As to be expected with Adamsberg, both the crimes and his methods for solving them, are highly unconventional.The ghost of an eighteenth century nun who slaughtered her victims, desecrated corpses of virgins, magic potions that ensure eternal life ... With all this, Commissioner Adamsberg will find in this title, which this time may cost him not the reason but the heart. Ah, to be able to do some Slightly Unorthodox Investigating (SUI™) with the Clique of the Slightly Unorthodox Methods (CotSUM™)! Such fun times to be had! It’s all cute and cuddly arachnids, dandelions-that-aren’t, medieval women hermits, somewhat nefarious, stinking bugs, amputation, impromptu (if a little illegal) archaeological digs super fun, luxurious camping trips, and sporadic teaspoon theft! Fun times, I tell you! Adamsberg also has a complicated relationship with Camille, an artist, and musician, which gives him more depth than the usual crime fiction character. Margaret Atwood recently described Mona Awad as her “literary heir apparent”. (Of Awad’s BookTok sensation Bunny, Atwood remarked: “You think, ‘She’s not going to go there … yes, she is.’”) Rouge (Scribner, Sept) plays with horror and humour in a surreal, gothic tale about a mother-daughter relationship that is also a biting satire on the beauty industry. If you’re ready to match wits with the Commissaire? Start reading! Share with us in the comments below if you’ve read any Vargas novels?

At the National Museum of Natural History, Adamsberg meets a pensioner who tells him that two of the three octogenarians have known each other since childhood, when they lived in a local orphanage called The Mercy. There, they had belonged to a small group of violent young boys known as the "band of recluses." Adamsberg faces two obstacles: the third man killed by the same venom was not part of the "band of recluses," and the amount of spider venom necessary to kill doesn't add up.Ma, a libro concluso, tutto sommato una storia ben raccontata, ben documentata, avvincente e intrigante. With "This Poison Will Remain," Vargas has created a story filled with delightful imagery, a unique plot, and a truly touching ending. For those who like the unusual and quirky, reading Vargas can be addictive. Yet after the Nîmes deaths, more members of the old band succumb to recluse bites, leading the commissaire to uncover the tragedy hidden behind the walls of the orphanage.”

In Julia (Granta, Oct), Sandra Newman opens out the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four by looking at that novel’s events from a female point of view. From Julia’s life in a women’s dormitory through her affair with Winston Smith and torture by the Thought Police, on to a meeting with Big Brother himself, it’s a fascinating reflection on totalitarianism as refracted through Orwell’s times and our own. Prophet Song (Oneworld), Paul Lynch’s horribly convincing portrait of Ireland falling under fascist control, has already been longlisted for the Booker; while The Power author Naomi Alderman takes a very different approach in November with The Future (4th Estate, Nov), an explosive tech-thriller about love and survival at the end of the world. La traduttrice è stata brava a mantenere il più possibile i giochi di parole che costituiscono la ragnatela che si forma nella mente del commissario, da indizio a indizio. Werner Herzog’s Every Man for Himself and God Against All (Bodley Head, Oct), translated by Michael Hofmann, recounts the film-maker’s impoverished childhood in a Bavarian village where the family had to make a loaf of bread last a week and the children went without shoes in the summer. Herzog goes on to chronicle his early jobs herding cows, fishing for squid and working as a rodeo clown before rising to become a celebrated director of films including Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo and Rescue Dawn. Infatti è in queste bolle che si annida la quisquiglia che è sfuggita e che nobilita il dubbio, a volte scambiato per accidia, impedendo di comminare la pena definitiva o il verdetto infausto.Which literally means “pulled by the hair” and is the actual translation for “far-fetched,” but because it’s French sounds a lot cooler and way more stylish than its English cousin thrice removed. Obviously. Una storia dolorosa e tragica che affonda le radici nel passato, ma che manifesta i risvolti peggiori nel presente; o meglio, come la racconta il commissario, la sua è "un'indagine che sprofonda negli abissi, quelli del passato come quelli della mente." This Poison Will Remain opens with the mysterious deaths of three elderly men, apparently from recluse spider bites. Detective Adamsberg smells a murder, and he follows his instincts into the heart of a crime decades in the making.