Coule la Seine - Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas is a unique voice in French crime fiction, one of the very best in any language in fact. Although translated in English, she doesn't seem to have made the same impression in the UK or at least hasn't received the attention her works deserve. I don't know whether her 'unique voice' translates well, as I haven't read any of the translations, but it's entirely fitting that her work at least has been translated where other fine French crime writers have been neglected. Even so there are two notable omissions (three if you count her original graphic novel with Baudoin Les Quatre Fleuves), one of them the excellent Ceux qui vont mourir te saluent, the other being the short story collection Coule la Seine. Although part of the Adamsberg series, the three brief stories here are admittedly minor pieces, but being Vargas of course they are still a little bit special.

Salut et liberté (1997)

Vargas can do serious and quirky even in the short story format, and the character that Adamsberg encounters in Salut et liberté is another of her wonderful street characters, Vasco de Gama. He has taken up what seems to Danglard like permanent residence on a bench outside the commissariat with his strange collection of possessions. Adamsberg is less concerned; he has other things to worry about such as an anonymous letter that mocks the commissioner for failing to catch him after he committed a murder. The letter - and there are more to come - is signed 'Salut et liberté. X'

Vasco de Gama isn't there by chance, but has read of Adamsberg solving the case of the murder of a fellow down-and-out. A former tailor, Vasco considers himself a poet and as such recognises that there is something special about Adamsberg. Not so much Danglard, who openly shows his dislike of the observer and the fact that Adamsberg tolerates it. Adamsberg however is sure there is a connection between the letters and Vasco's appearance outside the commissariat around the same time.

Salut et liberté is almost a fully-fledged Adamsberg investigation in miniature. It has all the familiar characters, behaviours and quirks you would expect to find in the longer works, with the commissioner as ever working on insights and intuition based on small unusual details. Doing nothing it seems to the outside eye - apart from Vasco evidently - but at the same time observing more than you would think. The resolution of the case is also as roundabout and unexpected as it gets with Vargas.

La nuit des brutes (1999)

La nuit des brutes - the brutal night - is as far as Adamsberg is concerned, the 24th December. It's certainly not a night like any other, a night that not infrequently sees them with a murder on their hands. Or a suicide, suggests Deniaut, the officer who spends this holiday period with Adamsberg dealing characters drying out in the drunk tank, when news arrives that a woman's body has been washed up down the Seine. No Fairy Tale of New York this, although the woman is missing a shoe like Cinderella. In reverse, observes Deniaut. For Adamberg though this is enough for him to insist it's murder, and that when they find the shoe, it won't be in the hands of Prince Charming but a murderer.

La nuit des brutes is a minor story, a little too short for the Vargas magic to flow but it's consistent with the nature of an Adamsberg investigation, requiring at it does help from an unexpected outsider.

Cinq francs pièce (2000)

Toussaint Pi has been wheeling a supermarket trolly around the city, selling natural sponges on the streets of Paris; 9732 of them that he found in an abandoned warehouse. He reckons that if he sells them for five francs apiece that he will make a fortune. Unfortunately that cold winter day he has only sold five. There's not the market for sponges bought from a beggar with supermarket trolley that he thought there might be. When he witnesses a woman dressed in furs being gunned down on the street while he is settling down for another night on the streets, his first reaction (after checking her purse) is to disappear and not get involved. The last thing he wants is for the police to start asking questions about his trade.

Unfortunately he is brought to the police station for questioning, or perhaps he's fortunate that it is Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg who interviews him. Pi is presumably short for Pierre, but the rest of forename was accidentally dissolved by a cup of coffee on birth certificate, a typically Vargasian touch. And since he is called Pi - as he insists - he is good with figures, particularly at calculations of the circumference of circles. Yeah, where else do you get this but in a Fred Vargas story? And the rest. The woman turns out to be an important figure close to government, the sponge seller a nobody, but Adamsberg has a way of giving people purpose and value. My favourite story in this short collection, this is classic Fred Vargas.

Reading notes. Coule la Seine by Fred Vargas, Vivianne Hamy, first edition 2002. This edition comes with illustrations for all three stories by Edmond Baudoin. I think the artist liked Cinq francs pièce as well, as he created a full comic version of the story, Le marchand des éponges (published by Librio). It's entirely faithful to the original (if not perhaps meeting the individual reader's own image of Adamsberg), using much of Vargas's writing (though updating the 5 francs to 1 Euro). The book also includes an original piece by Baudoin (Dessiner la ville), where he pays tribute to Vargas for inspiring him to look at the streets of Paris and see them through her eyes. Baudoin has also created an original graphic novel with Vargas, Les Quatre Fleuves (Vivianne Hamy, 2000).

Up until late last year, Vargas had not published a new book for about 6 years, so I had intended make use of the hiatus to re-read all her books that I haven't reviewed yet. I've fallen behind with that plan, so not only do I have the new book Sur la dalle to read now, I still haven't even read the previous two yet (Temp glaciaires and Quand sort la recluse). That's a poor effort on behalf of an author I consider to be one of my favourite writers, so I'll have to get back to that or at least catch up on those last three previously unread books.