If Henning Mankell were French

Back in 2007 when I first went on Goodreads, I remember putting a Fred Vargas novel, Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand, on my to-read list. I think it was a recommendation through Powell’s Daily Dose, an e-mail I still look forward to every day. Though the novel sounded great, I had a lot of trouble tracking it down through my local library so it ended up being buried under the massive number of to-read books that followed (887 at last look!). It was a set of Cannonball reviews by Janniethestrange that reminded me that I wanted to track down this author and read the books that have been translated into English.

This novel, the first in the series according to the back cover, was as interesting and as French as I thought it would be. Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg has recently moved from the Pyrenees to Paris to take over the position of commissaire for the police headquarters in the 5^th arrondissement. In his previous job, he had earned a reputation as both incredibly skillful at his job and incredibly odd—a dynamic that seems to be continuing here in Paris. His new colleagues, eleven days in, are still trying to suss him out—especially Inspector Adrien Danglard.

Soon, however, the police are dealing with a strange phenomena—someone is drawing chalk circles in various parts of the city and putting objects in them. Most Parisians and most of the police force think it’s just an eccentric prank but Adamsberg has gotten a feeling about them and he’s learned to trust his gut. As he and Danglard begin to look into the circles, they encounter an intriguing cast of characters—a grumpy but beautiful blind man, a woman whose day job is deep sea specialist but whose hobby is to follow people that interest her about the city, and a seventy-year old woman still responding to personal ads and looking for love. However, the stakes are raised when instead of a piece of street trash, a body is discovered in the newest circle.

This mystery is not all about the plot (though I didn’t see it coming!) but rather about creating interesting and often baffling characters and a sense of place. If you want a tightly constructed, race against time story, this is not the novel for you. However, if you enjoy a more subtly paced series like Henning Mankell’s Wallander books, you might like this.