The chalk circle man (2009)

Objects inside blue chalk circles on Paris pavements seem too eccentric to merit a serious inquiry. Adamsberg suspects otherwise. Vargas, translated by Siân Reynolds, gives intuition and odd human connections room that a strictly methodical procedural would deny them. Start here for a first Adamsberg case with a distinctly wayward imagination. The city is a place of strange encounters, and the detective's own manner of reading them supplies much of the pleasure.