A climate of fear

In Vargas's captivating eighth Commissaire Adamsberg mystery (after 2013's The Ghost Riders of Ordebec), the dreamily brilliant Paris police commissioner, assisted by his baffled, balky team of underlings, investigates the deaths of members of the Association for the Study of the Writings of Maximilien Robespierre, a group devoted to studying the French Revolution. The first victim, Alice Gauthier, ran a bath, took off her shoes, climbed into the water fully clothed, and then apparently slit her wrists, but Adamsberg suspects foul play. A decade earlier, Gauthier made an ill-fated trip to an island off of Iceland. When the second victim turns out to have been on the same trip, Adamsberg is sure there's a link between the present-day murders and a tragedy that occurred on the Icelandic island back then. Acting on his intuition, the policeman decides to lead an expedition to the island, reputed to be haunted by an Arctic demon, in the hope of finding some answers. Vargas keeps introducing unexpected, fascinating new plot elements, even as the action totters on the brink of absurdity. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Commissaire Adamsberg's tenth series installment, the second available in audio in the United States, finds him and his team embroiled in an investigation that runs them to numerous parts of France and finally to Iceland. The first suicide seems routine, but a mysterious symbol at the scene tickles Adamsberg's suspicion, and as bodies pile up, the victims are found to have visited a remote island off Iceland's shore, a day trip turned into a two-week nightmare. Another connection ties victims to a historical society formed to re-enact meetings of the revolution's Committee of Public Safety. The plot is complex and rich with historical detail but short on action. Repetitive dialog among the detectives slows movement. Chris MacDonnell's beautifully accented, precise reading adds more weight. VERDICT While Vargas has won numerous international mystery and thriller awards, she is not well known in the United States. This book, which stands well alone, is a good introduction. ["An entertaining atmospheric mystery, touched with a soupçon of the supernatural": LJ Xpress Reviews 3/3/17 review of the Penguin hc.]-Janet Martin, formerly with Southern Pines P.L., NC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A pair of suspicious suicides are linked to each other and to the "godforsaken rock" that irrevocably changed the victims' lives a decade ago.In April in Paris, there's still a nip in the air, so conditions aren't ideal for frail Alice Gauthier to take a walk. When she suffers a fall, Marie-France, a helpful passer-by, gathers the contents of her spilled purse, noticing an unsent letter only after the lady is on her way. The day after Marie-France duly posts the letter, Madame Gauthier is found dead in her bathtub, an apparent suicide. But when Commissaire Adamsberg (An Uncertain Place, 2011, etc.) and his sidekick, Danglard, investigate, many small details argue against a ruling of suicide, and a scrawled Cyrillic character near the body is a genuine conundrum. Not long afterward, esteemed chemist Henri Masfaur shoots himself, and Danglard finds a letter to him from Madame Gauthier at the crime scene. It links them via an expedition to Iceland a decade ago that ended in tragedy. When Adamsberg and Danglard track down the other members of the party, they are unsurprisingly met with obfuscation and lies. Yet another alleged suicide, this one involving a knife in the belly, raises the stakes in the duo's pursuit of a bold and perhaps desperate serial killer. The intricate eighth installment in this Parisian series delights with its interesting characters, engaging dialogue, and infectious sense of curiosity about the lives of others. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.