THE PRONE GUNMAN, by Jean-Patrick Manchette

(originally posted on November 5, 2006)

I bow down to the brilliance, the nihilism and the audacity of Manchette's tightly coiled noir novel, a huge hit in France when published 25 years ago and destined to live on as one of the subgenre's classics. At times I gasped, other times I flinched, and occasionally I even came close to tears and laughter, sometimes all at once. All this in 150 pages. Wow.