Ivory Pearl Jean-Patrick Manchette The master of the noir novels final, unfinished, work Ivory Pearl was supposed to be the start a new, expansive series using the espionage novel as a means to talk about the revolutions and uprisings of the post WWII years. Manchette died before he could finish it, but what he left…

The Mad and the Bad Jean-Patrick Manchette A woman with mental problems is sprung from a hospital to watch a child heir. A tortured assassin with a bad ulcer is hire to make a murder like look a kidnapping. Nobody gets what they’re expecting. Welcome to another crime novel by the mad genius Jean-Patrick Manchette…

Fatale Jean-Patrick Manchette I think this is generally thought of as Manchette’s most fully realized work and the culmination of his deeply nihilistic noir novels. The Fatale is a young woman who, we soon discovers, kills lecherous men for revenge, and money. She is literally a serial killer, yet still we cheer for her, especially…

Three To Kill Jean-Patrick Manchette You’re coming home late at night, you try to do the right thing, but you end up getting caught up in something you don’t even understand and then people start trying to kill you. That’s the plot of 3 to Kill, and of many other crime novels and thrillers, but…

The Prone Gunman Jean-Patrick Manchette Poor kid from the wrong side of town falls in the rich, gorgeous, popular girl. Embarrassed by his humble origins and desperate to make her happy, he tells her he is leaving town to make his fortune and will be back in ten years for her.  This being a novel…