French Fiction, Thrillers, European Peoples & Cultures - Fiction & Literature, Crime Fiction, Police Stories

Seeking Whom He May Devour (Chief Inspector Adamsberg Series)

Name: Seeking Whom He May Devour (Chief Inspector Adamsberg Series)
Author: Fred Vargas
ISBN: 9780743284028

by Fred Vargas, David Bellos

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Overview

A small mountain community in the French Alps is roused to terror when they awaken each morning to find yet another of their sheep with its throat torn out. One of the villagers thinks it might be a werewolf, and when she's found killed in the same manner, people begin to wonder if she might have been right. Suspicion falls on Massart, a loner living on the edge of town.

The murdered woman's adopted son, one of her shepherds, and her new friend Camille decide to pursue Massart, who has conveniently disappeared. Their ineptness for the task soon becomes painfully obvious, and they summon Commissaire Adamsberg from the city to bring his exceptional powers of intuition to bear on layer upon layer of buried hatred and secrets.

France's queen of crime writing pits the maverick genius of Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg against ancient, primal fears in a novel that "establishes Vargas as one of the most unusual voices in European crime fiction" (The Sunday Times [London]).

Synopsis

Each day, inhabitants of a small community in the French Alps find another of their ewes with its throat cut. When one of the villagers too is killed people begin to wonder: could it be the work of a werewolf? Soon suspicion falls on Massart, one of the villagers, because of his beardlessness (according to popular legend, werewolves have no hair on their bodies because they are inside the body).

Soliman, the victim's adopted son; Le Veilleur, a lonely sheperd and Camille, a lovely girl from the city, decide to pursue Massart and their hunt leads them into the Alps, but their incompetence is undisguisable and they decide to summon Commissaire Adamsberg — well known for his peculiar investigation methods — to help. Thanks to his extraordinary intuition, Adamsberg unearths an astonishing truth, one that the villagers are going to find hard to believe.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Although Adamsberg joins the hunt late and dashes through the police work, Vargas is such a dazzling stylist that her unorthodox plot and eccentric characters (wolves included) keep us enthralled.

About the Author, Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas was born in Paris in 1957. As well as being a best-selling author in France, she is by training an historian and archaeologist.

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Editorials

Marilyn Stasio

Although Adamsberg joins the hunt late and dashes through the police work, Vargas is such a dazzling stylist that her unorthodox plot and eccentric characters (wolves included) keep us enthralled.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Admirers of quirky, atmospheric whodunits will revel in Vargas's creative second mystery featuring Chief Insp. Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg (after 2005's Have Mercy on Us All). A series of savage attacks on sheep leaves the countryside near the French Alps gripped in superstitious fear, as locals suspect that an unnatural creature resembling the legendary Beast of G vaudan is responsible. The inspector, keeping a low profile to protect himself from a would-be assassin, is drawn into the mystery after the killer turns to human prey, starting with a woman who has suggested that a werewolf was at large. While the abundance of fair-play clues (and the absence of a large pool of suspects) will enable most experienced genre readers to anticipate the solution, the unusual cast of characters and off-beat humor should help Vargas win new fans. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In the mysteries featuring Paris Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, historian and archaeologist Vargas deftly combines elements of the old-the power of superstition-and the new. Remarkably intuitive at solving crimes and skillful at coaxing confessions, Adamsberg still can't maintain a relationship with Camille Forestier, the woman he loves. She seeks his aid after sheep are savaged and a woman is killed in southeast France, presumably by a large wolf. Camille is living in the area with Canadian naturalist Lawrence Johnstone, who is studying wolves in a nearby national park. When an odd, hairless man named Massart disappears, suspicion points to him as a werewolf. Adamsberg (in hiding from a woman determined to kill him) joins Camille and her cohorts in the hunt, as the slaughter of men and ewes continues. Originally published in France before Have Mercy on Us All, released here last year, this is an atmospheric thriller with a splendid cast of offbeat characters. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/06.] Michele Leber was Assistant Coordinator of Collection Development at Fairfax County Public Library, VA, until retiring in November 2002 and LJ's Reviewer of the Year for Fiction in 1997 Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The inhabitants of the Alpes-Maritimes region of France live in fear as sheep and humans alike are ravaged by what appears to be an enormous wolf. Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg's former lover Camille has taken up with enigmatic Lawrence Johnstone, a Canadian working with the wolves of the Mercantour National Park. Johnstone tells Camille that her friend Suzanne, who becomes the first human victim, has accused Massart, a local loner, of being a werewolf. But Johnstone thinks Massart is using a wolf he tamed to do the killing. A visit to Massart's cabin finds him gone; a map marked with a rambling route points to England. The police believe the marauder is a wolf. The local populace think it's a werewolf. So do Suzanne's adopted son and the shepherd Watchee, who convince Camille to drive their truck as they search for Massart. By the time Adamsberg joins them, several older men are killed in the same fashion, and the police have found no links among the victims. But one of the police reports has planted an idea in Adamsberg's idiosyncratic mind, leading him to solve the bizarre case. Vargas has created a notably intriguing policeman in Adamsberg (Have Mercy on Us All, 2005), whose story this time draws you in and keeps you guessing until the dazzling d‚nouement.