Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audouin-Rouzeau, born in 1957 in Paris.

Career as archaeologist
She worked at the French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS), which she joined in 1988. She later joined the Institut Pasteur, as an eukaryotic archaeologist. She has undertaken a project on the epidemiology of the Black Death and Bubonic plague, the result of which was a work considered definitive in the research area — Les chemins de la peste (2003).

Career as novelist
Fred is the diminutive of her given name, Frédérique, while Vargas derives from the Ava Gardner character in The Barefoot Contessa and is the pseudonym adopted by her twin sister, Joëlle Jo Vargas, a painter.

She mostly writes police thrillers (policiers). They take place in Paris and feature the adventures of Chief Inspector Adamsberg and his team. Her interest in the Middle Ages is manifest in many of her novels, especially through the person of Marc Vandoosler, a young specialist in the period. Seeking Whom He May Devour was shortlisted by the British Crime Writers' Association for the last Gold Dagger award for best crime novel of the year, and the following year The Three Evangelists won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie International Dagger. She also won the award for the second year-running with Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand.

Fred Vargas took an important part in the defence of Cesare Battisti, a left-wing activist researched by Italian and French justice since 2004 for alleged assassinations committed in the 1970s, during the "years of lead".

Principal characters

 * Marc Vandoosler, known as Saint-Mark: Cleaning lady by day, medievalist by night
 * Lucien Devernois, known as Saint-Luke: Historian specialising in the Great War
 * Matthias Delamarre, known as Saint Matthew: Historian specialising in prehistory
 * These three characters, christened the Evangelists live in the same house, the Rotten Hut with Old Man Vandoosler


 * Vandoosler: former policeman, epicurean and oddball
 * Ludwig Kelweihler: former policeman with a national network of informants and a toad Buffo
 * Adamsberg: peripatetic police chief, with Zen research methods
 * Danglard: methodical police inspector, divorced, father of five children and conspicuous white wine consumer

English translations

 * The Three Evangelists (2006) (Debout les morts &mdash; 1995)
 * Seeking Whom He May Devour (2004) (L'Homme à l'envers &mdash; 1999)
 * Have Mercy on Us All (2003) (Pars vite et reviens tard &mdash; 2001)
 * Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand (2007) (Sous les vents de Neptune 2004)
 * This Night's Foul Work (2008) (Dans les bois éternels &mdash; 2006)

The Three Evangelists

 * Debout les morts, Éd. Originale Viviane Hamy, 1995 / Editions 84, 2000, ISBN 2-290-30215-5 (Prix Mystère de la critique 1996)
 * Un peu plus loin sur la droite, Éd. Originale Viviane Hamy, 1996 / J'ai lu, 2000, ISBN 2-290-30455-7
 * Sans feu ni lieu, Éd. Originale Viviane Hamy, 1997 / J'ai lu, 2001, ISBN 2-290-31258-4

Adamsberg

 * L'Homme aux cercles bleus, Éd. Originale Viviane Hamy, 1996 / J'ai lu, 2002, ISBN 2-290-34922-4
 * L'Homme à l'envers, Éd. Originale Viviane Hamy, 1999 / J'ai lu, 2002, ISBN 2-210-75435-6 (Grand Prix du roman noir de Cognac 2000)
 * Pars vite et reviens tard, Éd. Viviane Hamy, 2001, ISBN 2-290-34212-2 (Prix des libraires)
 * Coule la Seine, J'ai lu, 2004, ISBN 2-290-33797-8 (Collection of three novellas)
 * Salut et liberté, Éd. J'ai lu 2004, ISBN 2-290-32144-3
 * Sous les vents de Neptune (2 vols, 704 pp), Éd. Feryane, 2004, ISBN 2-84011-620-0
 * Dans les bois éternels, Éd. Viviane Hamy, 2006, ISBN 2-87858-233-0

Other/Unknown

 * Les Jeux de l'amour et de la mort, Éd. Originale, 1986 / Le masque, 1997, ISBN 2-7024-7856-5 (Prix du festival de Cognac)
 * Ceux qui vont mourir te saluent, Éd. Originale Viviane Hamy, 1987 / J'ai lu, 2001, ISBN 2-290-30992-3
 * Les quatre fleuves, Éd. Viviane Hamy, 2000, ISBN 2-87858-134-2, (Prix Alph-Art du meilleur scénario au festival d'Angoulême 2001)
 * Petit Traité de toutes vérités sur l'existence, Éd. Viviane Hamy, 2001, ISBN 2-87858-145-8 (Essay)
 * Critique de l'anxiété pure, Éd. Viviane Hamy, 2003, ISBN 2-87858-179-2
 * La Vérité sur Cesare Battisti, Éd. Viviane Hamy 2004, collection Bis (poche), ISBN 2-87858-195-4