#41: The Mad and the Bad by Jean-Patrick Manchette

A scheming man becomes the guardian of an orphaned nephew who just inherited a fortune; when he hires a nanny fresh from a mental institution, and then a hitman to take care of them both, things don't go quite as planned in Jean-Patrick Manchette's The Mad and the Bad.

Manchette is at the top of the list in French noir, with a notably bleak, yet darkly comic, style that was the template for many others.  This one is lighter on existentialism, and heavier on action, than some of his others, but is a completely enjoyable read front to back.

I enjoy reading Manchette whenever I come across one.  This is the New York  Review Books Classics edition, which I found at the New Castle-Henry County Public Library.  Recommended if you have never tried French noir.

#25: The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette

A super-cool killer tries to get out of the game, but naturally nothing goes as planned in Jean-Patrick Manchette's existential crime novel The Prone Gunman.

In my readings of international fiction I have often seen Manchette name-checked alongside the works of people I really enjoy, like Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Claude Izzo, and Sebastien Japrisot, so when I saw a paperback of The Prone Gunman in a little English-language used bookstore in Rome I snapped it up.

Manchette definitely tries for a Jean-Paul Belmondo/Alain Delon kind of cool in his protagonist, but infuses the story with the ambience of Camus' The Stranger.  It is at the same time a crackling spy novel as well as a deconstruction of the genre. 

Overall highly rewarding for those readers interested in this style and time period.  I consumed this very quickly over a night or two in Rome.