The opera singer Sophia Simeonidis 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.

Winner of the inaugural 2006 International CWA Dagger Award.

About the Author
Fred Vargas was born in Paris in 1957. A historian and archaeologist by profession, she is now a bestselling novelist. Her books have sold over 10 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 45 languages.

Reviews
The Three Evangelists is a strange mix of the sinister, the bizarre and the surreal; her characters seldom behave like ordinary people, and her mysteries do not follow the usual rules of crime fiction. Yet these curiously assembled elements coalesce into a gripping, unsettling whole that stays in the mind far longer than most novels of the genre. It tantalises from page one -- Marcel Berlins * The Times *
A Vargas novel is as good as a trip to Paris. The style has the same hyper-real quality as all her writing - the real world, but filtered through a strange prism - but it's the plotting that really hits the spot: ingenious and eccentric -- Barry Forshaw * Daily Express *
A truly original talent, creating situations and characters like nothing else in contemporary crime fiction... This novel is a delight, written in a wonderfully wry tone of voice, and its plot twists will defy the most alert reader -- Joan Taylor * Sunday Times *
One of France's most original crime writers... her characters are eccentric but appealing and the mystery is enjoyably hard to solve * Sunday Telegraph *
Original...plenty to enjoy * Times Literary Supplement *


Awards
Winner of CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger 2006.



Book Information
ISBN 9780099469551
Author Fred Vargas
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 213g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 18mm