Prone Gunman by
Jean Patrick Manchette
pbk out November 06
(Serpent's Tail)
at £7.99
Manchette, who died in 1995, is not an author I have come across before, but I found
this short account of the misadventures of a contract killer who wishes to retire
intensely readable and compelling. I was reminded of the best work of Jim
Thompson, but Manchette is very much his own man. Martin Terrier is a cold and
calculating murderer, not even as attractive as Patricia Highsmith's Ripley, and yet
one needs to keep turning the pages to find out whether he will ever escape the
clutches of the shadowy people for whom he has been working. The prose is as
clinical as the way Terrier disposes of everyone who gets in his way.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
New Books by Jean Patrick Manchette at Amazon.co.uk
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Prone Gunman by
Jean Patrick Manchette
