Fred Vargas
A hard-boiled detective thriller of the kind I usually don't go for, but I was home one day with nothing to read and found this on the bookshelf. One of my flatmate's former flatmates had left it behind and I was in need of something to fill my long Parisian métro rides to get to uni.
I found the story a bit hard to get into at first. I admit this may have to do with my lack of French police detective vocabulary and vocabulary about the Plague – two of the plot's main focuses. Once I went to the trouble of hauling out my Larousse an learning some new words and arcane French slang, I did get into the books intrigue and well-developed cast of characters. In a way that seemed to me very realistically French, the characters are all connected to a small market square in Paris' 14th arrondissement. This is probably the city's least remarkable arrondissement, and I think this anonymity of place made the story more relatable.
The book was translated as Have Mercy on Us All in 2003 by David Bellos (French title literally translates to "Leave quickly and come back late"). It was also made into a French film in 2007.
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