Commissaire Adamsberg investigates the death of three men linked by
their childhood at an orphanage in Nimes, all killed by the venom of the
recluse spider, in the new novel by the #1 bestselling French crime
writer
"A wildly imaginative series."--The New York Times
"Adamsberg is a terrific creation and his team of misfits a joy to watch
in action."--Peter Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of
the Inspector Banks series*
*
A murder in Paris brings Commissaire Adamsberg out of the Icelandic
mists of his previous investigation and unexpectedly into the region of
Nîmes, where three old men have died of spider bites. The recluse has a
sneaky attack, but is that enough to explain the deaths of these men,
all killed by the same venom?
At the National Museum of Natural History, Adamsberg meets a pensioner
who tells him that two of the three octogenarians have known each other
since childhood, when they lived in a local orphanage called The Mercy.
There, they had belonged to a small group of violent young boys known as
the band of recluses. Adamsberg faces two obstacles: the third man
killed by the same venom was not part of the band of recluses, and the
amount of spider venom necessary to kill doesn't add up.
Yet after the Nîmes deaths, more members of the old band succumb to
recluse bites, leading the commissaire to uncover the tragedy hidden
behind the walls of the orphanage.
