The Three Evangelists

Notes

The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas is a story about three historians. They are loosely based on Fred Vargas’s brother (a First World War historian), her sister and herself (Vargas studied both prehistoric and medieval history).

“I was inspired by him, Jo and myself. We are not recognisable, but it is us. And it’s the way we behave as siblings.”

Another dose of Vargas’s bizarre, offbeat story-telling.

Publisher’s Synopsis

The opera singer Sophia Siméonidis wakes up one morning to discover that a tree has appeared overnight in the garden of her Paris house. Intrigued and unnerved, she turns to her neighbours: Vandoosler, an ex-cop, and three impecunious historians, Mathias, Marc and Lucien – the three evangelists. They agree to dig around the tree and see if something has been buried there. They find nothing but soil.

A few weeks later, Sophia disappears and her body is found burned to ashes in a car. Who killed the opera singer? Her husband, her ex-lover, her best friend, her niece? They all seem to have a motive.

Vandoosler and the three evangelists set out to find the truth.

Read a full review of The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas at The View from the Blue House.