Seeking Whom He May Devour [Import] [Mass Market Paperback]

Fred Vargas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2006

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.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Vargas's prize-winning novel is a fascinating exploration of Paris's dark side."
–Guardian

". . . thoroughly high-class entertainment."
–Time Out

About the Author

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.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books (February 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099461560
• ISBN-13: 978-0099461562
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.8 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,412,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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

She worked at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which she joined in 1988. She later joined the Institut Pasteur, as a eukaryotic archaeologist.

She mostly writes police thrillers (policiers). They take place in Paris and feature the adventures of Chief Inspector Adamsberg and his team. Her interest in the Middle Ages is manifest in many of her novels, especially through the person of Marc Vandoosler, a young specialist in the period. Seeking Whom He May Devour was shortlisted by the British Crime Writers' Association for the last Gold Dagger award for best crime novel of the year, and the following year The Three Evangelists won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie International Dagger. She also won the award for the second year-running with Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a nifty, crafty whodunit with an unusual voice to boot, March 23, 2007

By 

Rich Piellisch (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeking Whom He May Devour (Mass Market Paperback)

I thank The Economist for reporting on Fred Vargas (a woman!) late last year and inspiring me to pick up this book. A most engaging and genuinely funny narrative voice, a sympathetic detective hero quirkily reminiscent of Simenon's great Maigret, myriad clues you don't know are clues, and a terrific surprise solution to the mystery -- gentle reader, ya shouda known!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and surprising, September 24, 2007

By 

Gwilym - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seeking Whom He May Devour (Mass Market Paperback)

As usual, a good book by Vargas with all the usual elements. These include a very thorough knowledge of medieval themes that shine through and a masterfully written storyline. Unfortunately, also a lack of knowledge in biology that shines through with some necessity in a book involving wolves.

For once, the translation is better than the original. One of the main characters is a Canadian and Vargas lets him use different English expressions in almost every sentence he says. Unfortunately, her English seems to be weak and the expressions are almost always used in the wrong context, sometimes with hillarious results. This excellent translation into English has of course also "translated" the faulty expressions into the correct ones.

This is not one of Vargas's best books, but it still will keep you reading without being able to put it down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever, well written . . . . a winner, May 30, 2006

By 

John E. Drury "jedrury" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeking Whom He May Devour (Mass Market Paperback)

Man eating wolves in the Mercantour National Forest in northern Provence menace the community. Off beat characters, an enjoyable plot and an ending worth waiting for in this short fast-paced mystery.