This Poison Will Remain by Fred Vargas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A new Fred Vargas is always an event! My librarian friend knew to put a hold on it for me when the library placed their order, and we’ve been exchanging texts in the evenings as we both read it. A rash (pun intended) of deaths among elderly men in the south of France, attributed to mysteriously potent spider bites, gets the attention of Commissaire Adamsberg, for no very good reason. His team is puzzled, some actively resistant or even mutinous, including the stalwart Danglard. But Adamsberg, in his fey, wandering, eccentric (and sometimes annoying) way, begins a surreptitious investigation. Childhood traumas – the victims’, their victims’, and Adamsberg’s own – are dragged into the present day, decades later. There is philosophic discussion of venomous animals, Magellan’s voyages, blackbirds, pigeons, and garbure (for which I have found a recipe I will be trying). And as a special treat for fans of Vargas’s other “Evangelist” mysteries, Mathieu (the prehistorian who eschews most clothing and lives in the basement), turns up to help answer some questions from the past. All delightful, all smart, moody, and woven with history, folklore and “bizarrerie.” I will say I had picked out the perpetrator and motive by page 70, and was correct – but with Vargas it doesn’t matter. You stay because you savor the world, the people, the weirdness, and the sheer fun of it. Enjoy!
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