The exhilarating new Inspector Adamsberg novel from France’s multi-million-copy bestselling crime fiction star

**A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020**

‘Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives… I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain‘ ANN CLEEVES

After three elderly men are bitten by spiders, everyone assumes that their deaths are tragic accidents.

But at police headquarters in Paris, Inspector Adamsberg begins to suspect that the case is far more complex than first appears.

It isn’t long before Adamsberg is investigating a series of rumours and allegations that take him to the south of France. Decades ago, at La Miséricorde orphanage, shocking events took place involving the same species of spider: the recluse.

For Adamsberg, these haunting crimes hold the key to proving that the three men were targeted by an ingenious serial killer. His team, however, is not convinced. He must put his reputation on the line to trace the murderer before the death toll rises…
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PRAISE FOR THIS POISON WILL REMAIN:

‘Absorbing… Full of twists and spiced with Vargas’s characteristic wit and style’ PETER ROBINSON

‘Vargas is an addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid world’ INDEPENDENT

‘Vargas’s books are…cunning, corkscrew murder mysteries’ A.J. FINN

When two Parisian women are murdered in their homes, the police suspect young accordionist Clément Vauquer. As he was seen outside both of the apartments in question, it seems like an open-and-shut case.

Desperate for a chance to prove his innocence, Clément disappears. He seeks refuge with old Marthe, the only mother figure he has ever known, who calls in ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler.

Louis is soon faced with his most complex case yet and he calls on some unconventional friends to help him. He must show that Clément is not responsible and solve a fiendish riddle to find the killer…

HOW DO YOU SOLVE A MURDER WITHOUT A BODY?

Keeping watch under the windows of the Paris flat belonging to a politician’s nephew, ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler catches sight of something odd on the pavement. A tiny piece of bone. Human bone, in fact.

When Kehlweiler takes his find to the nearest police station, he faces ridicule. Obsessed by the fragment, he follows the trail to the tiny Breton fishing village of Port-Nicolas – in search of a dog. But when he recruits ‘evangelists’ Marc and Mathias to help, they find themselves facing even bigger game.

A THREE EVANGELISTS NOVEL

In this mystery, Commissaire Adamsberg is pitted against nemeses past and present: Ariane Lagarde, France’s foremost pathologist and Adamsberg’s enemy since they argued over a case twenty-three years earlier, and Louis Veyrenc, a new recruit with a grudge, who has been assigned the job of protecting the Commissaire’s ex-girlfriend. As the different strands of Vargas’s compelling story begin to intertwine, events move towards a gripping climax…

Shortlisted for the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.