Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand: Adamsberg 4

Description

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.

Promotion info

'European fiction is the new black ... Vargas is my favourite European crime writer' Peter Guttridge

Awards

Winner of CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger 2007.

Reviews

Praise for Fred Vargas: "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." "Daily Express" (UK) "From the Hardcover edition."

Author description

Fred Vargas was born in Paris in 1957. As well as being a best-selling author in France, she is by training an historian and archaeologist.