The Gunman

Jean-Parick Manchette

ISBN 10: 1504622472 ISBN 13: 9781504622479

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2015

Synopsis

[Translated from the French by James Brook]
[Read by Ralph Lister]

A gripping noir masterpiece and New York Times Notable Book, The Gunman is now a major motion picture starring Sean Penn.

Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. But the organization won't let him go - they have other plans for him. In a violent tale that shatters as many illusions as bodies, Jean-Patrick Manchette subjects his characters and listeners alike to a fierce exercise in style. This tightly plotted, corrosive parody of ''the success story'' is widely considered to be Manchette's masterpiece - a classic of modern noir.

About this title

About the Author

Jean-Parick Manchette (1942-1995) rescued the French crime novel from the grip of stodgy police procedurals, restoring the noir edge by virtue of his post-1968 leftism. Today, Manchette is a totem to a generation of French mystery writers, and his stories have inspired several films, including Claude Chabrol's The Nada Gang.

From Publishers Weekly

A legend in Europe for the spectacularly tight and innovative thrillers he wrote for S‚rie Noire beginning in 1971, Manchette (1942-1995) retired from the field after this tour de force of violence and the absurd appeared in 1981, apparently feeling he had reached the apex of his art. Martin Terrier plans on quitting his career as a paid assassin and marrying his childhood sweetheart, Anne, but his bosses in the gun-for-hire trade refuse to accept his resignation. Terrier's naive expectations that his girlfriend will have chastely waited for him are ridiculous, of course, but no more so than his ex-boss's idea that this human killing machine can be forced to perform one last contract on a visiting politician without profound collateral bloodshed. Terse behaviorist prose-"Terrier drew back a little on his seat and stopped pressing the barrel of the HK4 against the throat of the young man"-drives the narrative relentlessly and even gleefully forward. Absolutely nothing goes as planned, while the hit man knocks off anyone who gets in his way even as Manchette mercilessly (and amusingly) chronicles the impotence unexpectedly plaguing Terrier's love life. For the first time readers can experience in English translation the masterful thriller considered Manchette's finest, proof positive that the French knew what they were talking about when they labeled this sort of novel noir.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1504622472
• ISBN 13: 9781504622479
• Binding: Audio CD