- Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (5 Jan 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099461560
- ISBN-13: 978-0099461562
- Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 1.9 x 17.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 315,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Commissaire Adamsberg must be the most engaging French detective since Maigret.' Scotland on Sunday. 'Poetic, offbeat and gently addictive. Her prose has an unusual deftness, a wry humour. A unique voice' Guardian. 'An intriguing, idiosyncratic voice' Time Out. 'A work of real class - its characters sharp, multi-faceted and original, and it style crisply intelligent' Glasgow Herald
Book Description
'Ingenious. Slick, creepy and full of engaging odd characters, this thriller is a class act' Independent
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was looking forward to reading this book, as the author is new to me, I enjoy the genre, love and know France, and am familiar with the region. But how to get through a book with such a clunking translation? Mr Bellos fails to find a consistent voice for the characters, who wander from bizarre slang ("you'll be in the slammer for the rest of your twatty lives") to Edwardian formality ("swithering"??). There also seems to be indecision on whether to make this UK English of the "old chap" variety, or to use Americanisms like "wrench" (as opposed to "spanner") and "fresh-painted". And at times you can almost see the translator writhing to force a paragraph from French into what he takes for English:"She can pick whomever she wants. Whoever she likes best."
This may sound like nit-picking, but it truly spoiled my enjoyment of this book, as the lumpen translation jars so frequently.
As to the story itself, well I found it rather slow, and the insistence on character quirks (e.g. the dictionary quotations) become painful after a while. I might try another, based on the other reviews here, but it will have to be in the original to have any chance at all.
This may sound like nit-picking, but it truly spoiled my enjoyment of this book, as the lumpen translation jars so frequently.
As to the story itself, well I found it rather slow, and the insistence on character quirks (e.g. the dictionary quotations) become painful after a while. I might try another, based on the other reviews here, but it will have to be in the original to have any chance at all.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I loved the two Fred Vargas books translated by Sian Reynolds(The Three Evangelists & Wash This Blood...) which I read before this and I wanted to love this one as much but was regularly distracted by the clunking translation by David Bellos. The prose was often too flat and lumpen to carry the wit and verve of this writer's imagination, the so-called idioms either dated or simply opaque. I imagine she is tricky to translate - but I'm glad I didn't read this one first because, despite its intriguing mystery and Jaques Tati-like cast of characters, I might have attributed the flawed prose to Fred herself and have been put off her other works.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
as a big fan of Vargas and Adamsberg this sadly disappointed me - where This Night's Cruel Work and others are the sublime bordering the ridiculous, this has crossed the border into ridiculous and outstayed its welcome. as others have suggested, the translator David Bellos must take a deal of the blame - his stilted and over literal interpretations are tedious and i suspect destroy much of the whimsical humour and dialogue - the title is the first example of this - grammatically correct but a bit formal.
Adamsberg doesn't really make a proper appearance in the plot until over half way through and while vargas other characters are quirky and entertaining the ludicrous werewolf hunt they are on rather takes any suspense out of the story. "Chilling and slick" it says on the cover - i think they left out the word "Not" from the Times quotation. Even the subplot is poorly handled and the book ends more in slapstick than cliffhanger. Readable but the worst in the Adamsberg canon.
Adamsberg doesn't really make a proper appearance in the plot until over half way through and while vargas other characters are quirky and entertaining the ludicrous werewolf hunt they are on rather takes any suspense out of the story. "Chilling and slick" it says on the cover - i think they left out the word "Not" from the Times quotation. Even the subplot is poorly handled and the book ends more in slapstick than cliffhanger. Readable but the worst in the Adamsberg canon.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of Fred Vargas' best, weird thrillers
This is the second of a 9-part series of police procedurals about Paris police commissioner Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg J-BA), who hails from the Pyrenees. Read more
Published 9 months ago by P. A. Doornbos
Fred Vargas
An English version of a French author. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have since bought more by the same author. A very different style that is easy to follow.
Published 10 months ago by sandy-liz
Crime with a hint of the supernatural
If you are expecting a 'traditional' crime read then I would think twice about reading Fred Vargas. But if you are looking for something totally different, that is quirky and... Read more
Published 11 months ago by lovemurakami
Marvellously eccentric
Fred Vargas' series of novels featuring Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg are marked by unusual, even bizarre, plots and a highly eccentric central character. Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. V. Clarke
Seeking Whom He May Devour
I enjoy Fred Vargas's books generally but this one attracted me because of its splendid name! I like the uncomplicated, easy reading style, engaging characters with a story that... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2009 by Mrs. C. Bambra
Lost in Translation
There is something of the fairy story about many modern thrillers (a fact directly acknowledged by Raymond Chandler, whose Philip Marlowe was a consciously-created knight in... Read more
Published on 12 May 2009 by Melmoth
Boring and intensely irritating!
Whether any or most of the blame can be laid at the feet of the translator Heaven only knows but this has to be one of the most irritating books I've ever read. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2009 by still searching
Wilted Werewolves
This book was so disappointing considering the rave reviews on the cover, I started to wonder who on earth could have written them. Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2008 by M. Asher
Who knew that washing-up was such an important part of Crime fighting...
This is a wonderfully surreal crime novel. It's about a bunch of misfits who try to puzzle out the murder of their good friend. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2007 by Marmalade the Book Magpie
Lighten up, guys - it's just a story!
I'm always surprised at how seriously other readers take fairly slight stories.....If you're looking for great literature, this is not the place to start. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2007 by Jean Nisbet
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