L'armée furieuse - Fred Vargas

Once again, with her latest Commissioner Adamsburg novel L'armée furieuse Fred Vargas shows why she is in a league of her own when it comes to French crime writing, or indeed in simply just in a league of her own. If there's a distinctly French character to her work, it's probably in the nature of Adamsberg, or perhaps more in the various types of characters Adamsberg meets in his cases. Not surprisingly, there are more than a few unusual types that come up in L'armée furieuse. How do these people seem to find Adamsberg?

Mythology and the supernatural increasingly plays a part in the cases investigated by Adamsberg, some of which turn out to have human agent behind the strange events, others (like the previous Un lieu incertain) are somewhat more ambiguous. Here, Adamsberg is sought out by Valentine Vendemot, from a small village called Ordebec in Normandy. A man has gone missing, Michel Herbier, but she's not particularly concerned about him, as he's not well loved in the village, a hunter who illegally kills female and baby game. Madame Vendermot is more concerned that her daughter has had a vision of Herbier and three others fall victim to L'armée furieuse, La Mesnie Hellequin, a legendary army of the dead that serves justice to those who have evaded human justice.

Adamsberg has no business going to Normandy, particularly when he has a far more politically sensitive case in Paris to deal with in the death of a prominent businessman Clermont-Brasseur burned to death in his Mercedes, a case that has all the hallmarks of a known anti-capitalist activist, Mo. Not to mention other strange and unrelated cases, such as an old lady killed by bread crumbs, a tortured pigeon, all mixed in with strange obsessions over the beating of the wing of a butterfly in Brazil, the floating seeds of a dandelion and a preoccupation with people taking sugar. You're definitely in the strange world of Vargas and Adamsberg.

It's not so much the plotting, although Vargas impressively manages to keep numerous and seemingly unconnected lines of interest going at the same time - both personal and professional - but her real talent is in bringing all these random elements together and feel like you are touching on something profound. That's not done like anyone else, the author seeming to be able to touch on the very nature of intuition, showing how it works, how seemingly small and insignificant details can spark off connections and meaningful insights. Along with the author's own humour and use of language, it's extraordinary and constantly surprising, but also deeply involving and absorbing.

While there can be legitimate issues with relying too much on the strange and supernatural, Vargas manages to ensure that there's plenty of human agency to keep things intriguing in L'armée furieuse. The actions of Danglard, Retancourt, Veyrenc, Zerk all pull things in one direction, the strange siblings of the Vendermot family, Léo and the distinct characteristics of the people of Ordebec in Normandy in another presenting many avenues for conflict of interests and ambiguity that Vargas explores in her own uniquely fascinating way. Another superb book in this series.