Have Mercy on Us All

by Fred Vargas (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $11.81

  Translated from the French by David Bellos - Winner of the Grand Prix Litteraire des Lectrices, 2002 - Winner of the Prix des Libraires, 2002 Joss le Guern is a town crier in Paris's 14th arrondissement. He calls out the local news three times a day to all who will listen. Over the course of a few days, however, a number of enigmatic and disturbing messages are slipped in to the daily news, and he becomes increasingly alarmed. Superintendent Adamsberg is visited by an extremely troubled woman who has found strange marks on the door of her building: upside down 4s marked out in black paint. This, and the appearance of the frightening messages, are exactly the kind of mysteries Adamsberg loves. In the course of his inquiries he begins to sense a sinister and often grotesque menace. And when a charred corpse is found, Adamsberg knows he's dealing with a particularly serious and chilling case. Be Gone and Don't Come Back is Fred Vargas's masterpiece so far. She is exceptional at building mood and tension, and, as Henning Mankell portrays the social realities of contemporary Sweden in his Inspector Wallander mysteries, so Vargas does the same for Paris and France.

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $12.45

  Three times a day in a Parisian square, a curious modern-day crier announces the news items that are left in his box. Over the course of a few days he receives a number of disturbing and portentous messages of malicious intent, all of them referring to the Black Death. Strange marks have also appeared on the doors of several buildings: symbols once used to ward off the plague. Detective Commissaire Adamsberg begins to sense a connection, even a grotesque menace. Then charged and flea-bitten corpses are found. The press seizes on their plague-like symptoms, and the panic sets in.