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

** Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month **

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

"Thrilling… Breathtakingly original… A wildly inventive plot that puts Vargas’s real-life expertise (she is an archaeologist) to brilliant use" - Sunday Times, Crime Book of the Month

"Vargas has as loving and sharp an eye for provincial French eccentrics as Simenon... Vargas is an addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid world" - Independent

"France's most acclaimed crime novelist... Her novels about the kindly, quixotic Commissaire Adamsberg are unique, presenting us with a France that resembles Simenon’s in its concreteness" - Daily Telegraph

"Adamsberg [is] one of my favourite fictional detectives. Vargas is a wonderful writer, quirky, endearing and always surprising" - Guardian

"Few contemporary crime thrillers can match Vargas's soaring imaginative flights" - Sunday Times

"Vargas writes with strength, erudition and unique imagination… In the crowded world of crime fiction, she’s a valuable one-off" - The Times

"A master of her craft" - Irish Times