Skeletons in the Closet

'His brutal best' - New York Times 
 
A girl is missing, leaving no leads, no hope, no point - it's just the case for Eugène Tarpon. 
 
Tarpon is sleeping in his office once again, when he's offered a job he's too broke to refuse. A distant relative wants him to investigate her daughter's disappearance. The police have given up already, but Tarpon is too much of a gentleman to brush the old lady off. And when something smells off, he's not a man who can stop digging. 
 
Skeletons in the Closet takes the bruised and boozy detective of No Room at the Morgue even deeper into the wreckage of modern France. Manchette exposes a world where justice is hollow and decency is just another dead end. 
 
PRAISE FOR JEAN-PATRICK MANCHETTE 
 
'Writing so dark it gives a new meaning to the word noir' - Frederick Méziès 
 
'We must revere him now and rediscover him this very instant' - James Ellroy 
 
'A comedic genius...I read and reread him, stunned, appalled, and laughing out loud' - Rachel Kushner

Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942–1995) was a crime novelist, screenwriter, critic, and translator. In 1971 he published his first novel and went on to establish a new genre of French novel, the neo-polar. Vintage Classics publishes his Fatale, Nada, No Room at the Morgue and Skeletons in the Closet.

Eugène Tarpon is back to sleeping in his office and waiting for a job that pays. Then he gets a call from an old contact in the police. A distant relative of his – a polite, persistent widow – wants someone to look into her daughter’s disappearance. The police have already given up. No leads, no hope, no point. Just take the case, take her money, and keep her busy. 
 
Tarpon’s too broke to refuse, and too much of a gentleman to brush her off. But the story doesn’t sit right. And when something smells off, he can’t help but start digging. 
 
With Skeletons in the Closet, Manchette sends his bruised, boozy detective stumbling deeper into the wreckage of modern France – exposing a world where justice is hollow, the missing stay missing, and decency is just another dead end.

Nada

[Nada] remains incredibly exciting to read. Manchette wastes none of his readers’ time, one short chapter after another driving the book relentlessly to its end

This pair of explosive, absurd French crime thrillers [Nada and Fatale] – with plenty of oh là là and even more zut alors – will cheer you up and help you forget the desperate weather… these [are] funny, nasty, perpetually surprising books

'Explosive, absurd...with plenty of oh la la and even more zut alors' The Times 
 
WHEN IT COMES TO REVOLUTION, EVERYONE PAYS 
 
In Paris, the Nada gang – a small cell of left-wing radicals – hatch a plan to kidnap the U.S. ambassador. They’re armed, angry, and almost successful – but totally unprepared for what follows. As the crackdown begins, the group splinters, exposing cowardice, betrayal, and the thin line between radical idealism and outright nihilism. There will be no heroes – only casualties. 
 
Jean-Patrick Manchette skewers both the establishment and its would-be destroyers in this pitch-black political thriller. His most overtly radical work, Nada is a savage, stylish dissection of violence, ideology, and the wreckage left behind. 
 
PRAISE FOR JEAN-PARICK MANCHETTE 
 
 
‘Manchette was Le Homme... We must revere him now and rediscover him this very instant. ’ James Ellroy 
 
'A comedic genius... I read and reread him, stunned, appalled, and laughing out loud' Rachel Kushner 
 
‘Manchette is Camus on overdrive... He deserves much the same attention’ James Sallis 
 
‘Manchette is legend among all of the crime writers I know, and with good reason: his novels never fail to stun and thrill from page one’ Duane Swierczynski

Fatale

France's king of noir fiction…he writes with a bleak, tragic beauty

Shocking, funny, sad, smart and cool… A macabre delight from start to finish

A fist between the eyes, leaving the reader reeling… So devastating it takes your breath away

Manchette's books are all action, unfolding with a laconic efficiency that would make his killers proud

I’d rather read Manchette than many contemporary noir writers.

This pair of explosive, absurd French crime thrillers – with plenty of oh là là and even more zut alors – will cheer you up and help you forget the desperate weather… these [are] funny, nasty, perpetually surprising books

'The French noir novel you need to help you vent your frustrations right now’ LitHub 
 
Murder isn’t always ugly. 
 
Aimée is drop-dead gorgeous, razor-sharp, and lethally efficient. A killer with a cool head and a taste for chaos, she arrives in the backwater town of Bléville – a festering stew of grudges, corruption, and small-town rot – ready to make a killing. 
 
It's a game she’s played before: stir up trouble, pit the locals against one another, then disappear with blood on her hands and money in her pocket. But this time, something breaks and the game turns on her. 
 
Jean-Patrick Manchette transformed the crime novel into a weapon of satire and stylish mayhem. Fatale is his bloodiest, funniest, and most brilliantly unhinged work: a riot of revenge, farce, and gleeful destruction. 
 
PRAISE FOR JEAN-PARICK MANCHETTE 
 
 
‘Manchette was Le Homme... We must revere him now and rediscover him this very instant. ’ James Ellroy 
 
'A comedic genius... I read and reread him, stunned, appalled, and laughing out loud' Rachel Kushner 
 
'Manchette is one of the greatest writers since Dashiell Hammett, his only true son and heir' David Peace 
 
‘Manchette is Camus on overdrive... He deserves much the same attention’ James Sallis 
 
‘Manchette is legend among all of the crime writers I know, and with good reason: his novels never fail to stun and thrill from page one’ Duane Swierczynski

Jean-Patrick Manchette

Alyson Waters

Ex-cop, ex-idealist, and man in free fall, Eugène Tarpon has been kicked off the force for killing a protester. Now he’s holed up in a dingy Les Halles office, drinking too much and waiting for something to happen. 
 
Then it does. Memphis Charles, wild-eyed and bloodstained, bursts in claiming her roommate’s been brutally murdered – but she can’t go to the police. She wants Tarpon. And for reasons even he can’t explain, he takes the case. As the bodies mount, Tarpon is dragged into a Parisian underworld of politics, sleaze, and paranoia – with nothing to guide him but instinct, stubbornness, and a battered sense of justice. 
 
With No Room at the Morgue, Manchette rewrote the American hardboiled detective novel into a bleak, boozy, and brilliantly French bruising meditation on guilt, truth, and the art of going down swinging.

Jean-Patrick Manchette

Books by Jean-Patrick Manchette

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