I've been keeping an eye out for Vargas's work for a while. She is said to be one of non-Scandinavian Europe's foremost crime writers. An Uncertain Place is one of her Commissaire Adamsberg series. I was looking forward to reading it.
It started well - severed feet ostensibly trying to 'walk' into Highgate Cemetery in London. The thing is, though, a preposterous 'hook' only works if you can provide a thoroughly sensible explanation. And Vargas doesn't. The plot gets more and more ludicrous as it proceeds. I won't give the game away because Vargas clearly has fans - but it wasn't for me. The writing had an ephemeral quality, not unlike Hakan Nesser or Andrea Camilleri, but both those guys manage to anchor themselves with decent plots. I only finished reading An Uncertain Place over the weekend and already I've forgotten who did it and, indeed, what it was they did.
Not for me.
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