The Accordionist

The final novel in the Three Evangelists trilogy, by France's utterly original bestselling crime writer

It’s all rather delightfully bonkers, a playful and subversively unorthodox take on the private eye novel by a master of her craft

A real wonder of a book, in all senses of the word

The book is as beguiling as previous entries in the Three Evangelists series, with the pleasure here coming from the comic interplay between the unconventional sleuths

Vargas is the poet of modern French crime writing, her work has a slightly ethereal feel… this is solid gold Euro-noir crime fiction. A high calibre literary thriller that entertains with aplomb… The Accordionist is cleverly plotted, the intensity builds and what starts out as intriguing becomes more involving as the reader is gripped by the fundamental question, ‘who did it?’ More than other crime novels, you have to surrender to Vargas’s vision of the world, one that you will not instantly recognise but may come to love… The Accordionist satisfies the most ardent noir strictures; slightly subversive, strong plotting, droll humour, inventive twists and elegant prose. This is a real treat for lovers of intelligent crime fiction

Shockingly original, disturbingly eccentric and massively involving, Vargas books are a step beyond ordinary crime fiction and take you on a startling journey… Their quirky interplay and unconventional way of thinking…makes for a droll, entertaining read. Translator Sián Reynolds has a knack of rendering their cadences and ticks into readable English

Brilliant…Vargas is a lovely storyteller

[Vargas] has won the CWA international dagger four times, confirming her place in the top rank of contemporary crime writers... [A Climate of Fear] is easily the best thing she has ever done... The idea of history repeating itself is at the heart of this stunning novel, which confirms Vargas’ fine understanding of the unchanging nature of human passions.

One of the most entertainingly eccentric of all current European crime writers... Highly impressive.

Vargas writes with strength, erudition and unique imagination... In the crowded world of crime fiction, she's a valuable one-off.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2018 
 
When two Parisian women are murdered in their homes, the police suspect young accordionist Clément Vauquer. As he was seen outside both of the apartments in question, it seems like an open-and-shut case. 
 
Desperate for a chance to prove his innocence, Clément disappears. He seeks refuge with old Marthe, the only mother figure he has ever known, who calls in ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler. 
 
Louis is soon faced with his most complex case yet and he calls on some unconventional friends to help him. He must show that Clément is not responsible and solve a fiendish riddle to find the killer...

A Climate of Fear

In the new novel from France's bestselling crime writer, Inspector Adamsberg investigates a series of strange murders linked to a secretive society

French crime queen's  new mystery – her best yet.

[Vargas] has won the CWA international dagger four times, confirming her place in the top rank of contemporary crime writers... [A Climate of Fear] is easily the best thing she has ever done... The idea of history repeating itself is at the heart of this stunning novel, which confirms Vargas’ fine understanding of the unchanging nature of human passions.

A reminder that Fred Vargas is one of the most entertainingly eccentric of all current European crime writers... [It] demonstrates why Vargas is so highly esteemed... Highly impressive.

Vargas writes with strength, erudition and unique imagination... In the crowded world of crime fiction, she's a valuable one-off. A Climate of Fear is one of her best.

A  rich and remarkable work that may be her masterpiece.

Vargas is assured in the way she marshals her narrative elements around a fascinating exploration of how a corrupted group dynamic can parlay historical horrors into contemporary crimes.

*Featured in The Times top ten crime novels of the decade* 
 
THE NEW INSPECTOR ADAMSBERG NOVEL 
 
Shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger 2017 
 
A woman is found dead in her bath. The murder has been disguised as a suicide and a strange symbol is discovered at the scene. 
 
Then the symbol is observed near a second victim, who ten years earlier had also taken part in a doomed expedition to Iceland. 
 
How are these deaths, and rumours of an Icelandic demon, linked to a secretive local society? And what does the mysterious sign mean? Commissaire Adamsberg is about to find out.

Dog Will Have His Day

How do you solve a murder without a body? A brilliant Three Evangelists novel from France's utterly original bestselling crime writer

One of today's few truly original writers of crime fiction: disturbing, unruly, droll and poetic

Few contemporary crime thrillers can match Vargas's soaring imaginative flights

This is wonderful, quirky stuff, a world away from formulaic crime fiction

Vargas is an addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid world. Her occasional whimsy somehow turns into comment both trenchant and funny

A cool, clever, original and deeply humane crime writer

Move over Scandi crime, the new foreign thriller favourites are the French.  And no one is better than Fred Vargas

The characterisation is imaginative and the plot distinctly quirky... Humour is cast over even the darkest of themes and the oddball central characters entertain as much as the plot intrigues

Dog Will Have His Day firmly demonstrates why Vargas is so highly thought of

Shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger 
 
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A MURDER WITHOUT A BODY? 
 
Keeping watch under the windows of the Paris flat belonging to a politician's nephew, ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler catches sight of something odd on the pavement. A tiny piece of bone. Human bone, in fact. 
 
When Kehlweiler takes his find to the nearest police station, he faces ridicule. Obsessed by the fragment, he follows the trail to the tiny Breton fishing village of Port-Nicolas – in search of a dog. But when he recruits ‘evangelists’ Marc and Mathias to help, they find themselves facing even bigger game. 
 
 A THREE EVANGELISTS NOVEL

A Commissaire Adamsberg novel

The Ghost Riders of Ordebec

France’s bestselling crime writer, and three-time winner of the CWA International Dagger, sends the quirky and original Commissaire Adamsberg far outside his jurisdication in a chilling tale of evil-doers who disappear after visitations from a band of ghostly horsemen

This latest outing for the offbeat Commissaire Adamsberg is [Vargas'] best

After decades in which crime fiction in French was dominated by the Belgian author Georges Simenon, it has an indisputable new star in Fred Vargas

Vargas depicts brilliantly a rural community riven with superstition, where class distinctions have existed for centuries

An early contender for outstanding crime novel of the year

A glorious mix of myth, quirky observation and gallic humour

Her  novels about the kindly, quixotic Commissaire Adamsberg are unique, presenting us with a France that resembles  Simenon’s in its concreteness but with a fantastical, even surreal,  twist: werewolves, vampires and, in her latest novel, an army of ghosts on horseback… Her work is like a baked Camembert among the smorgasbord of chilly Scandinavian realism that dominates the  foreign crime fiction market here, delicious comfort food for the sophisticated palate

There are, it seems, two types of people: those who have discovered the quirky bliss of Fred Vargas's novels and those who don't know a good thing when they see it on the shelf

A celebration of love and camaraderie among the unlikeliest allies

‘People will die,’ says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters. 
 
She refuses to speak to anyone besides Commissaire Adamsberg. Her daughter has seen a vision: ghostly horsemen who target the most nefarious characters in Normandy. Since the middle ages there have been stories of murderers, rapists, those with serious crimes on their conscience, meeting a grisly end following a visitation by the riders. 
 
Soon after the young woman’s vision a notoriously vicious and cruel man disappears. Although the case is far outside his jurisdiction, Adamsberg agrees to investigate the strange happenings in a village terrorised by wild rumours and ancient feuds.

An Uncertain Place

Severed feet are found outside Highgate Cemetery; a violent murder is committed in Paris - can Commissaire Adamsberg unravel the links between these two cases?

One of today's few truly original writers of crime fiction: disturbing, unruly, droll and poetic

Frederique Vargas['s]...imaginative characters put most of America's top-rated crime writers to shame

An Uncertain Place is full of wit and invention, with a plot that satisfies both intellect and emotion

As ever, Vargas's characters inhabit a world where reason and myth collide, and the result is a thrilling read

This is crime fiction writing at its most intriguing

Only one's dreams after a champagne-fuelled night at the Follies Bergere have quite the same nightmarish-but-entertaining quality as Vargas's delightful crime novels

[Vargas is] one of the most exciting, addictive and inventive purveyor of classy crime fiction currently pounding the publishing beat... It it a highly entertaining policier but more importantly, as with Conan Doyle, the wacky world Vargas shapes is oddly reassuring: a great remedy to a grey day

Three-times winner of the CWA International Dagger for Crime Fiction 
 
Commissaire Adamsberg has left Paris for a police conference in London, accompanied by anglophile Commandant Danglard and Estalere, a young sergeant. The city offers a welcome change of scenery until a gruesome discovery is made - just outside the gates of Highgate Cemetery a pile of shoes, all containing severed feet, is found. 
 
Returning to Paris, the three men are then confronted with the violent killing and dismemberment of a wealthy, elderly man. Both the dead man's son and gardener have motives for murder, but soon another candidate for the killing emerges. As Adamsberg investigates the links between these two unsettling crimes, he puts himself at terrible risk.

The Chalk Circle Man

The Chalk Circle Man is the first book featuring Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, one of the most engaging characters in contemporary detective fiction.

She wants to surprise, unsettle, frustrate and amuse - and succeeds in writing a gripping novel that takes readers out of their comfort zones

The hottest property in contemporary crime fiction

The novel shows Vargas in riveting form right from the start of her writing career

Witty, inventive and vaguely surreal, this novel should win over the most diehard crime fiction fans

Cunningly constructed... Vargas is everything Grisham is not: witty, intriguing, disconcerting and seductively romantic

It is Vargas's eerie, sensuous portrait of Paris, at once a place of romance and dread, which resonates most hauntingly in this novel

A flavoursome translation, it shows her [Vargas'] dark charm from the off

Winner of The Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie International Dagger 
 
Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is not like other policemen. His methods appear unorthodox in the extreme: he doesn't search for clues; he ignores obvious suspects and arrests people with cast-iron alibis; he appears permanently distracted. In spite of all this his colleagues are forced to admit that he is a born cop. 
 
When strange blue chalk circles start appearing overnight on the pavements of Paris, only Adamsberg takes them - and the increasingly bizarre objects found within them - seriously. And when the body of a woman with her throat savagely cut is found in one, only Adamsberg realises that other murders will soon follow… 
 
‘The hottest property in contemporary crime fiction’ Guardian

This Night's Foul Work

Another riveting case for that most engaging of contemporary detectives, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, and another triumph from Fred Vargas, twice winner of the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.

Fred Vargas ... is rapidly asserting herself as one of the most impressive working crime writers

Irresistibly gripping, powerfully written and quite often frightening

The fascination of Fred Vargas's books is due as much to her characters as her plots... sit back and enjoy

If you haven't cottoned on to Vargas's brilliant Adamsberg detective stories, you're missing a treat

Vargas's latest continues on the humorous and original eccentricity of her work

On the outskirts of Paris, two men have been found with their throats cut. In Normandy, two stags have been killed and their hearts cut out. Meanwhile a seventy-five-year-old nurse who has murdered several of her patients has escaped from prison. Is there a connection between the three cases? 
 
In this mystery, Commissaire Adamsberg is pitted against nemeses past and present: Ariane Lagarde, France's foremost pathologist and Adamsberg's enemy since they argued over a case twenty-three years earlier, and Louis Veyrenc, a new recruit with a grudge, who has been assigned the job of protecting the Commissaire's ex-girlfriend. As the different strands of Vargas's compelling story begin to intertwine, events move towards a gripping climax... 
 
 
Shortlisted for the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand

'Riveting reading... Vargas writes novels that won't let you go, disturb and linger long' - The Times

No one writes crime novels quite like the French author Fred Vargas... another compelling read by this most original of novelists

Vargas has a wonderfully offbeat imagination that makes each of her novels a refreshing delight

Establishes Vargas beyond doubt as a cool, clever, original and deeply humane crime writer

It is enthralling and great fun from start to finish... all done with great verve, wit and invention

There is a haunting quality to Vargas's writing

A rising star within the narrow field of good, intellectual crime novels... Vargas has a marvellous way with landscape and secondary characters

It's her winning blend of empathy, humour and moral determination that places her books in the best-seller charts

Elegant plotting and misfit characters, gives US blockbusters a run for their money

Vargas's weightiest and most ambitious tome, but shot through with that nervy and sardonic Gallic humour that is her métier

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand firmly demonstrates why Vargas is spoken of in such warm terms by admirers... universal in its cutting psychology, and the personalities of her characters are rendered with off-kilter skill

The Times, The best crime novels of the decade

Between 1943 and 2003 nine people have been stabbed to death with a most unusual weapon: a trident. In each case, arrests were made, suspects confessed their crimes and were sentenced to life in prison. One slightly worrying detail: each presumed murderer lost consciousness during the night of the crime and has no recollection of it. 
 
Commissaire Adamsberg is convinced all the murders are the work of one person, the terrifying Judge Fulgence. Years before, Adamsberg's own brother had been the principal suspect in a similar case and avoided prison only thanks to Adamsberg's help. 
 
History repeats itself when Adamsberg, who is temporarily based in Quebec for a training mission, is accused of having savagely murdered a young woman he had met. In order to prove his innocence, Adamsberg must go on the run from the Canadian police and find Judge Fulgence. 
 
Winner of the 2007 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger for The Three Evangelists.

Seeking Whom He May Devour

'Ingenious. Slick, creepy and full of engaging odd characters, this thriller is a class act' - Independent

Commissaire Adamsberg must be the most engaging French detective since Maigret

Poetic, offbeat and gently addictive. Her prose has an unusual deftness, a wry humour. A unique voice

An absolute masterwork. One of the best books of the year

A work of real class - its characters sharp, multi-faceted and original, and its style crisply intelligent

In this frightening and surprising novel, the eccentric, wayward genius of Commissaire Adamsberg is pitted against the deep-rooted mysteries of one Alpine village's history and a very present problem: wolves. 
 
 Disturbing things have been happening up in the French mountains; more and more sheep are being found with their throats torn out. The evidence points to a wolf of unnatural size and strength. However Suzanne Rosselin thinks it is the work of a werewolf. Then Suzanne is found slaughtered in the same manner. Her friend Camille attempts, with Suzanne's son Soliman and her shepherd, Watchee, to find out who, or what, is responsible and they call on Commissaire Adamsberg for help. 
 
'Ingenious. Slick, creepy and full of engaging odd characters, this thriller is a class act' Independent

The Three Evangelists

Winner of the inaugural 2006 International CWA Dagger Award.

The Three Evangelists is a strange mix of the sinister, the bizarre and the surreal; her characters seldom behave like ordinary people, and her mysteries do not follow the usual rules of crime fiction. Yet these curiously assembled elements coalesce into a gripping, unsettling whole that stays in the mind far longer than most novels of the genre. It tantalises from page one

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 eccentric

A truly original talent, creating situations and characters like nothing else in contemporary crime fiction... This novel is a delight, written in a wonderfully wry tone of voice, and its plot twists will defy the most alert reader

One of France's most original crime writers... her characters are eccentric but appealing and the mystery is enjoyably hard to solve

The opera singer Sophia Siméonidis wakes up one morning to discover that a tree has appeared overnight in the garden of her Paris house. Intrigued and unnerved, she turns to her neighbours: Vandoosler, an ex-cop, and three impecunious historians, Mathias, Marc and Lucien - the three evangelists. They agree to dig around the tree and see if something has been buried there. They find nothing but soil. 
 
A few weeks later, Sophia disappears and her body is found burned to ashes in a car. Who killed the opera singer? Her husband, her ex-lover, her best friend, her niece? They all seem to have a motive. 
 
Vandoosler and the three evangelists set out to find the truth.

Have Mercy on Us All

'A delicious Parisian chiller' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

One of the most fetchingly weird detectives...Adamsberg is a bit like Morse, but much more French. An unusual, eccentric thriller

Fred Vargas has everything: complex and surprising plots, good pace, various and eccentric characters, a sense of place and history, individualized dialogue, wit and style

Moody, tense and grotesque, Vargas's prize-winning novel is a fascinating exploration of Paris's dark side

No procedural, this, as we follow the twists and turns of Adamsberg's intuition - but it is thoroughly high-class entertainment, notably as Vargas is not afraid to test herself with the narrative

On the basis of this elegantly twisted crime novel, Vargas is clearly an author who will rank alongside Henning Mankell. The detective, Commissaire Adamsberg, is the antithesis of Sherlock Homes: intuitive, preternaturally alert to hunches, and shabbier than Colombo. The plot kinks and switches in an utterly compelling manner. Creepy, sophisticated and wonderfully off-beat

Three times a day in a Parisian square, a curious modern-day crier announces the news items that are left in his box. Over the course of a few days he receives a number of disturbing and portentous messages of malicious intent, all of them referring to the Black Death. Strange marks have also appeared on the doors of several buildings: symbols once used to ward off the plague. Detective Commissaire Adamsberg begins to sense a connection, even a grotesque menace. Then charged and flea-bitten corpses are found. The press seizes on their plague-like symptoms, and the panic sets in.

Fred Vargas

Siân Reynolds

Thrilling… Breathtakingly original… A wildly inventive plot that puts Vargas’s real-life expertise (she is an archaeologist) to brilliant use

I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain, real vintage Vargas: playful, thought-provoking, a total delight. And beautifully translated. Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives

ANN CLEEVES, author of the Shetland series

In This Poison Will Remain, Fred Vargas has delivered an absorbing plot full of twists and spiced with her characteristic wit and style. Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits a joy to watch in action

PETER ROBINSON, author of the DCI Banks series

Fred Vargas’s books are murder mysteries, yes – cunning, corkscrew murder mysteries – but so much else besides: delicate comedies, engrossing tours of French geography and history, fascinating excursions into folklore and myth

A.J. FINN, author of The Woman in the Window

Vargas has as loving and sharp an eye for provincial French eccentrics as Simenon... Vargas is an addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid world

France's most acclaimed crime novelist... Her novels about the kindly, quixotic Commissaire Adamsberg are unique, presenting us with a France that resembles Simenon’s in its concreteness

Adamsberg [is] one of my favourite fictional detectives. Vargas is a wonderful writer, quirky, endearing and always surprising

Few contemporary crime thrillers can match Vargas's soaring imaginative flights

Vargas writes with strength, erudition and unique imagination… In the crowded world of crime fiction, she’s a valuable one-off

Wry humour and offbeat plots blend with a subtly dangerous charm to make Fred Vargas the queen of French crime writers

MARTIN WALKER, author of the Bruno, Chief of Police Series

Readers hungry for an adventure that combines the depth and detail of a satisfying police procedural with a devilish mystery won’t rest till they find out. Vargas remains the gold standard in modern crime fiction

** Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month ** 
 
The exhilarating new Inspector Adamsberg novel from France's multi-million-copy bestselling crime fiction star 
 
**A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020** 
 
'Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives... I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain' ANN CLEEVES 
 
 
After three elderly men are bitten by spiders, everyone assumes that their deaths are tragic accidents. 
 
But at police headquarters in Paris, Inspector Adamsberg begins to suspect that the case is far more complex than first appears. 
 
It isn't long before Adamsberg is investigating a series of rumours and allegations that take him to the south of France. Decades ago, at La Miséricorde orphanage, shocking events took place involving the same species of spider: the recluse. 
 
For Adamsberg, these haunting crimes hold the key to proving that the three men were targeted by an ingenious serial killer. His team, however, is not convinced. He must put his reputation on the line to trace the murderer before the death toll rises... 
_______________________ 
 
PRAISE FOR THIS POISON WILL REMAIN: 
 
'Absorbing... Full of twists and spiced with Vargas's characteristic wit and style' PETER ROBINSON 
 
'Vargas is an addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid world' INDEPENDENT 
 
'Vargas's books are...cunning, corkscrew murder mysteries' A.J. FINN

Fred Vargas

Praise for This Poison Will Remain

Thrilling… Breathtakingly original… A wildly inventive plot that puts Vargas’s real-life expertise (she is an archaeologist) to brilliant use

I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain, real vintage Vargas: playful, thought-provoking, a total delight. And beautifully translated. Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives

In This Poison Will Remain, Fred Vargas has delivered an absorbing plot full of twists and spiced with her characteristic wit and style. Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits ...

Thrilling… Breathtakingly original… A wildly inventive plot that puts Vargas’s real-life expertise (she is an archaeologist) to brilliant use

I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain, real vintage Vargas: playful, thought-provoking, a total delight. And beautifully translated. Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives

In This Poison Will Remain, Fred Vargas has delivered an absorbing plot full of twists and spiced with her characteristic wit and style. Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits ...

Thrilling… Breathtakingly original… A wildly inventive plot that puts Vargas’s real-life expertise (she is an archaeologist) to brilliant use

I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain, real vintage Vargas: playful, thought-provoking, a total delight. And beautifully translated. Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives

In This Poison Will Remain, Fred Vargas has delivered an absorbing plot full of twists and spiced with her characteristic wit and style. Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits ...

Books by Fred Vargas

Series by Fred Vargas

Commissaire Adamsberg9 Books

The Three Evangelists3 Books

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter