Fred Vargas in the newspaper
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 5:14 PM
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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- Name: Peter Rozovsky
- Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
This blog is a proud winner of the 2009 Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry and its blogkeeper a proud former guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here on Earth. In civilian life I'm a copy editor in Philadelphia. When not reading crime fiction, I like to read history. When doing neither, I like to travel. When doing none of the above, I like listening to music or playing it, the latter rarely and badly. Click here to find an independent bookstore near you.
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14 Comments:
"Quirky" is a good word for Vargas' novels. That includes many of her characters as well as the crimes, or, to be precise, or some aspects of them anyway. One in particular involves the killers' means of sending messages to the police and the general public, whether it be the objects found inside the chalk circle, or messages read out by the town crier.
She's also on my list of authors to keep track of. I've only read two by her so far, so I'm looking forward to finding others by her.
I generally don't like the word because it seems too closely synonymous with "twee." But it works for Vargas. She explores the roots of her characters' oddities and thereby makes them more than just cute affectations.
Another one of Vargas' quirks is her slow build-ups -- unusual for a murder mystery. Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand is the most prominent example.
Nice review, Peter. I have got to get on to these.
Great review! Way to spread the word about good mysteries.
Thanks. For some reason I thought you might have read Vargas already.
In any case, this book would not be a bad place to start. Neither would Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. This is one series where continuity is not a big issue.
Be aware that The Three Evangelists is not part of the Adamsberg series, though one or two of its characters pop up in small roles in the Adamsberg books.
Thanks, Julia. Vargas is an especially interesting writer about whom to spread the word. Her mysteries are not like anyone else's that I know of, with one possible exception. Even in that case, though, she and the author I have in mind are more like authorial cousins than siblings.
So you're not going to tell us who the cousin is?
No, I've known about Vargas for awhile, but as is often the case, I'm slow on catching up with what I know about.
The cousin is Pierre Magnan, though uncle might be more appropriate. He’s a good deal older than Vargas.
Slow is appropriate for both these authors.
I've been wanting to read Magnan for some time. He is at least marketed in a more lighthearted way than Vargas, though. Obviously, I have no idea whether this is accurate.
Now, that's interesting. Magnan's books have their delightfully lighthearted moments, but The Murdered House is as somber and Gothic as anything I can remember that may reasonably be called a crime story.
Vargas, on the other hand, though she's serious about her characters' eccentricities, plays up those eccentricities to the point where she might reasonably be called lighthearted.
Some of Magnan's work is being rereleased in paperback in the U.S. these days. I'll have to pay attention to the tone of the marketing campaign.
Well, the cover of Death in the Truffle Wood is pastel, and not what you would call gritty at all.
His work is not gritty, but it's not light-hearted either. I don't know what one would call it. Rural gothic, maybe? His books are rich, unsentimental descriptions of village lives that are almost incidentally about crime.
I'll try one and then I'll know.
Death in the Truffle Wood has a pretty irrestible opening chapter -- and one more lighthearted than The Murdered House.
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