This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of This Night’s Foul Work by Fred Vargas. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including schizophrenia, the occult and the quest for eternal life. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 60-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Fred Vargas
• Presentation of This Night’s Foul Work
• Summary of This Night’s Foul Work
• Character study
  • Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg
  • Commandant Adrien Danglard
  • Dr Ariane Lagarde
  • Lieutenant Veyrenc
  • Lieutenant Violette Retancourt
• Analysis of This Night’s Foul Work
  • A playful take on the detective nove
  • Intuition versus science
  • The theme of “the Shade”

About This Night’s Foul Work 

This Night’s Foul Work follows Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg and his team at the Serious Crime Squad in Paris as they investigate a series of brutal murders that seem to have been committed by a mysterious female figure. As the squad gather clues, they work out that the killer is trying to get their hands on the ingredients for an elixir of eternal life as described in a centuries-old book, and must race against time to identify their next victim before they can strike again.

The novel won the Trophée 813 (a prize awarded by the Association 813, which was founded in 1979 with the aim of promoting detective fiction) for Best French-Language Novel in 2006.

About Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas is a French writer, historian and archaeologist who is famous for her detective novels, many of which focus on Commissaire Adamsberg. Her novels have met with a great deal of success: she has won a range of literary prizes, both at home and abroad, and many of her works have been adapted for cinema and television. Vargas has also made a name for herself in the world of politics, as she is a well-known defender of Cesare Battisti, a far-left terrorist who was hunted by the French and Italian authorities in 2004.