As I mentioned previously, I’m going to try to get around to talking more about what I’m reading here.
I picked up The Chalk Circle Man, because I’d not previously read any Fred Vargas novels, but had heard good things about her, and I found myself in town at the weekend without anything to read (the last thing I really needed was to buy some new books).
It turns out that, typically of the way that any translated fiction reaches the English language, the publishers have been releasing her books out of sequence. So this book introduces the reader to Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, a detective with an especially unusual manner of solving crimes – using divination as much as anything.
The tale is curious, and is told from a few different viewpoints. But I immediately liked the both straightforward and incredibly complex Adamsberg. Someone is leaving curious blue chalk circles surrounding random objects on the pavements of Paris. How long before it becomes something more fiendish? I’ll let you decide.
I have the feeling that I’m going to enjoy catching up with the rest of the series. And I’ll have the luxuary of reading the books in order. Well – aside from the graphic novel and three novellas, neither of which seems to have been published in English yet.