Dog Will Have His Day (Les Evangélistes #2) by Fred Vargas

And so began my month of reading female authors. You have seen the first two books already (unplanned). Now for the third.

Contrary to what I though when I picked this one up at my bookshop, Fred Vargas is a woman. A French woman, too, which is nice for the 'author country' pie chart on my reading stats, as I must admit, there are two countries which are looking a bit gluttonous.

Louis Kehlweiler is doing a stakeout. While there, he notices something - a bone in a pile of dog pooh. And of course, it is a human bone - which can only mean one thing - MURDER!

Yes, I am still on my murder mystery spree. Bear with me. I have only a little time left to finish setting exam papers, and then my brain can return to normal and not be begging for something relaxing.

I found this an unusual book. The protagonist is a combination between a spy, Sherlock Holmes and Columbo. Yes, see what I mean by strange?

Overall I found it an enjoyable read. Had I not been exhausted when climbing into bed with this one, I probably would have enjoyed it more. There were some things I found unusual though as far as the writing style went. In a way it read a bit like a play. Through the dialogue, you work out that the people around the speaker are reacting to what is being said, or arriving on the scene etc. Not everything is spelled out, which actually was a nice change. I did find it a bit jarring though, as my first instinct was to think "But no one was there! When he he arrive?", but after a while I really appreciated it because I knew it had taken out a gazillion words which were clearly unneeded (and when you are working against the clock, those words add up to hours).

The mystery itself was pretty good. The one part I found a bit unexpected, but then that didn't have anything to do with the main mystery and I was not prepared for it. Hell, I didn't have a clue to his backstory, so I didn't even know that that angle was even an angle. But, that is what happens when you don't start with the first book in the series - or at least, I am guessing that that would have been introduced in the first book.

It was a decent crime novel. I also liked that it was French. I've never read a French crime novel before. I should probably also mention that Vargas has also won the International Dagger award.