Review: Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand

Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand by Fred Vargas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was my first encounter with commissaire Adamsberg and definitely one of the best books I've read in the last few months: The Parisian policeman faces a case, that is intertwined with Adamsberg's whole life, about a dead judge who seems to be the devil himself, Adamsberg's brother, who lives with guilt everyday and many murders that seem to be sprinkled randomly over whole France. When the commissaire reads about another murder that has all the same characteristics as the others before the judge's death 16 years ago he feels like being drawn back to his own history, being chased by a dead man - and the judge can still fight him, so that it's Adamsberg at last who has to run.

What I liked best about this book was the extraordinary characters. Clémentine and Josette, two surprising and very adorable, old Parisian ladies, could have their own crime series - and I'd definitely read it. They're great figures with a big potential. And from now on I will think of Clémentine every time I peel potatoes. I also liked very much how little coincidences, pictures or a random thought that doesn't seem to be connected to the case in any way mentioned by other people startet Adamsberg's creative thought process and led to another part of the puzzle. Even though he didn't seem to me to be too sympathetic he fit perfectly in the role of the Parisian commissaire, I want to read about.

The story is a bit mysterious and thrilling, but at the same time not too violent (actually the murders are quite violent but you don't read about every bloody detail) and the focus of the story was rather on solving the puzzle of the "dead judge" and on the question about innocence or guilt of the Adamsberg brothers than on the act of murdering. The book wasn't slow but it also didn't try to shock the reader on every other page. I enjoyed it a lot and will definitely look out for other cases to be solved by commissaire Adamsberg.



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