This Night's Foul Work

This book by Fred Vargas (who is a girl) is the first French murder mystery I've ever read. And I hope it's not the last, because this one was really good. I gotta check out her other books.
This Night's Foul Work was mainly about Commissioner Adamsberg. He's head of the Serious Crimes unit of the French police, and he's fighting to take the case of two supposed drug dealers being found with their throats cut. So normally it would go to the Drugs unit, but Adamsberg just doesn't want to let it go because of a couple of unusual things about the body. For one, they have earth under their fingernails. Why were these druggies digging, and where?
Adamsberg is surrounded by help: his right-hand man, Danglard, who is brilliant but has a drinking problem; the large and big-hearted Lieutenant Retancourt who saved his life on another case; and the smart pathologist, Ariane, who Adamsberg is partially atrracted to. Then there are a few foes, one of which includes the newest lieutenant to the Serious Crimes unit, Veyrenc. He has something against Adamsberg, and Adamsberg needs to find out what it is before it's too late. That in itself is a minimystery within the story, which took some surprising turns.
And lastly, there are a few suspects. The main suspect is this psychopath serial killer escaped-from-the-asylum nurse, who may be killing people to get back at Adamsberg for putting her in jail. Then there are also a few other suspects along the way, including Veyrenc. But in the end, the culprit is the last person I would have ever thought it to be, which is the mark of a very well-written mystery.
But now I'm thinking I'm going to order the other Commissioner Adamsberg mysteries off of amazon of something because they're sort of unique; not only is it a fast-paced wonderful murder mystery, but it has some supernatural elements which you don't normally find in police stories because the authors like to keep them grounded in real life so everything makes sense. I liked that it had the best of all thriller characteristics, though, it made for an interesting story.
And best of all it had some great dry humor. Adamsberg is sort of absent-minded and his colleagues really don't understand his methods for solving crimes sometimes, so it's a great surprise when as they're making fun of him behind his back he pulls this miracle out of his butt and solves the case. And it has great aspects of France, too. There's lots of cultural references and French stereotypes, making the book even more involved and teaches you a lot about territories in Europe.
It's one of those books you want to tear through so you can find out what happens but you can't because at the same time you have to relish every sentence. ♠♠♠♠