The Three Evangelists [Import] [Paperback]

Fred Vargas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2006

France’s bestselling and award-winning crime writer Fred Vargas joins Vintage Canada.

The Three Evangelists is an enormously entertaining departure from Vargas’s Commissaire Adamsberg series. Sophia Simeonidis, a Greek opera singer, wakes up one morning to discover that a tree has appeared overnight in the garden of her Paris house. As her husband doesn’t give a damn, she asks her new neighbours to dig around the tree to find out if something has been buried. Her neighbours are eccentric: Vandoosler, an ex-cop fired from the police for having helped a murderer to escape, and sharing the house are three impecunious historians: Mathias, Marc and Lucien – the three evangelists, as Vandoosler calls them. They accept the job because they are desperate for money and rather curious. When they find nothing and Sophia’s dead body turns up weeks later, they decide to investigate.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the works of Fred Vargas:

“A Vargas novel is as good as a trip to Paris. The style has the same hyper-real quality as all her writing — the real world, but filtered through a strange prism — but it’s the plotting that really hits the spot: ingenious and ecccentric.There’s been much brouhaha recently about the Crime Writers Association’s decision to exclude novels not written in English from its prestigious Dagger award; there may be the consolation of a separate prize for foreign writers. But after reading Fred Vargas, you may feel that she deserves the main trophy.”
–Daily Express

“Fred Vargas is a wonderful writer. Much of the joy of reading this book lies in Vargas’s wonderful use of language, her subtle characterizations and her superb sense of place.”
–Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

“Joyous, enchanting, amazing, fantastic, unclassifiable, beyond-brilliant. Readers will not hold back praise for Fred Vargas. With Have Mercy on Us All, the novelist spares no trick in keeping us glued to our seats.”
–Elle (France)

“On the basis of this elegantly twisted crime novel, Vargas is clearly an author who will rank alongside Henning Mankell. The plot kinks and switches in an utterly compelling manner. Creepy, sophisticated and wonderfully off-beat.”
–Scotland on Sunday

“The hero of this Parisian crime novel is one of the most fetchingly weird detectives I’ve come across in a while. Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is a bit like Morse, but much more French.”
–Daily Telegraph (UK)

“Slick, creepy and full of engagingly odd characters, this thriller is a class act.”
–The Independent (UK)

About the Author

Fred Vargas was born in Paris. A historian and archaeologist by profession, she has now become a bestselling and award-winning novelist. She is the author of many novels. Have Mercy on Us All and Seeking Whom He May Devour are available in English.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Canada (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0676977979
• ISBN-13: 978-0676977974
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,122,640 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

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imagine Adrian Monk, "Bones", and Rory Gilmore working together on a "Cold case"....., December 21, 2005

By 

Lu (University Park, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Three Evangelists (Paperback)

If you enjoy "Monk" on USA, "Bones" on Fox, or "Cold case" on CBS, this is the book for you: quirky but lovable characters, a weird crime that digs deep, games and winks and humor even in darkness, a realistic plot, and a very unique universe you can't bear to leave. Little bonus: it's not ghoulish or gross, it contains no sex, and it's overall quite "clean" (unlike many mysteries these days.)
Plus how often do you find unemployed history majors/grad students as sleuths?

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Delight, April 7, 2006

By 

L. M. Long (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three Evangelists (Paperback)

Tired of reading mystery books with the hackneyed Inspector/Sergeant couples mooching around? Here's the cure: fresh characters, humour, plot - all wonderful! From the opening pages where, in Paris, a protagonist finds a handy pebble to kick along ahead of him on his route, these are people you like immensely.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Put Down - Fascinating Characters, June 17, 2007

By 

J. Avellanet "author of Get to Market Now!" (Williamsburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Three Evangelists (Paperback)

From the opening few pages, this mystery hooks you quickly. The characters are some of the most fascinating I've ever read - in many ways, I wish the author would write more stories involving them. So original.

The mystery itself is very well set up, the story flows at a good pace, and at the end, you will be amazed that you saw all the same pieces but still didn't "get it right."

Certainly this is Vargas' best work to date. Can't wait for her next book to be translated.