I have finished Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas. It is a very good murder mystery with good character development and more information regarding the operation of the French police service.

There is on issue I would have with the translation. One character kept referring to Commissaire Adamsberg as "old chap". This is a very English phrase and is very out of place in the mouth of a Frenchman. It grated every time I read it. Apart from that the translation was great.

Would I read more novels by this author?
Yes!

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

To whom would I recommend it?
To anyone interested in murder mysteries. It contains no gore or extreme violence so if very accessible to all.

Did this book inspire me to do anything?
Yes. To continue reading books by Fred Vargas. ( )

An enjoyable commissare adamsberg book in which the commissaire hardly appears. Saw the ending coming, but still enjoyed ( )

Il romanzo è una sorta di thriller/giallo/commedia in cui una originale combriccola di personaggi cerca di risolvere, in modo un po' infantile e confuso, il mistero di cui sono stati testimoni nella loro zona: degli spaventosi attacchi di un lupo (gigante e strano) nei confronti di vari ovili e poi anche ad alcune persone.
Lavoro modesto, nello stile soprattutto, nella trama, nella caratterizzazione dei personaggi (solo per alcuni più accurata), nello sviluppo logico alla base della gran parte delle dinamiche, la forza della storia è invece la buona struttura del racconto e della costante suspense che porta il lettore a rimanere incollato alla lettura ( )

I really like Vargas, but this one was slow going. I put it down after about 50 pages--too much about sheep and not anything else--but my mom assured me it was worth finishing, so I went back. It was good and I'm glad I read it, though it's not one of her best. ( )

There are people born without hair on the outside of their bodies; if you slit open their skin from throat to groin, you may find hair instead on the inside of the skin. This is the mark of a werewolf, or so the people of the remote French Alps believe. Unfortunately, much like the various tests to prove a woman is a witch, either way the suspect is dead.

So when a rather odd man, one who keeps to himself and who does not have body hair, disappears at the same time that livestock and people begin to be slaughtered, the old rumors re-emerge in this region of the French Alps where the incidents are occurring in a straight line seemingly heading to a purposeful destination.

Two workers, one elderly, one mentally challenged, had become family to a woman farm owner apparently slaughtered by the beast. They borrow a farm truck turned camper to follow the trail. They convince a young woman to be their driver along the narrow, twisty Alp roads.

Eventually, the case catches the eye of Chief Inspector Adamsberg, who believes there is more to the tale than a werewolf. And it doesn’t hurt that the driver of the old truck is a former lover.

I enjoyed this quirky mystery with the hint of the supernatural beast as the suspect and the angsty love.

Mysteries are my relaxation read; I intend to continue with this series. ( )