THIS POISON WILL REMAIN

Is the rash of weird recent deaths due to a spider epidemic or a devious serial killer?

Commissaire Adamsberg is abruptly summoned from an Icelandic fishing trip back to France by Commandant Danglard, his anxious sidekick. The case involves a young woman, possessed of both a jealous husband and a lover, who’s been run over not once but twice by a 4x4. As Adamsberg unravels this case, another even more fascinating one catches his interest. A creature called a “recluse spider” is credited with several toxic bites and two fatalities. The obsessively curious Adamsberg (A Climate of Fear, 2017, etc.) consults the Anti-Poison Center and experts at the National History Museum before he goes to investigate in person. The idea that anyone could release enough recluse spiders into a house to deliberately kill someone is roundly ridiculed. Nor does his team have much interest in pursuing the case; the victims were old, so their deaths could be coincidental. Characteristically, however, Adamsberg perseveres. Detective Veyrenc, who has a reputation as the nerdiest member of the force, finds an explosive lead in The Recluse Gang, a group of bullying boys who used recluse spiders to attack fellow orphans at La Miséricorde Children’s Home in the 1940s. Could this be the break in the case that Adamsberg has been looking for? Readers hungry for an adventure that combines the depth and detail of a satisfying police procedural with a devilish mystery won’t rest till they find out.

Vargas remains the gold standard in modern crime fiction.