#5: How's the Pain? by Pascal Garnier

A hitman decides to finish one last job, only to find his life complicated after meeting a happy-go-lucky passerby, in Pascal Garnier's How's the Pain?

Garnier wrote a lot of these short, sharp noir novels filled with inky-black humor.  This one starts with a fatalistic opening scene, and then backtracks to fill in how an aquarium, a campground, and a baby (among other obstacles) all come into play.

Garnier's nihilistic humor isn't for everyone, but I enjoy his writing.  

This one, part of Gallic Noir Volume 1, I read quickly on my beloved Kindle.

#43: Boxes by Pascal Garnier

 A man slowly unraveling after the disappearance of his wife moves to their newly-purchased country home, only to fall into the circle of a strange neighbor, in Pascal Garnier's Boxes.

Garnier was a French author of bleak, unpleasant noirs, often made more palatable with surreal humor.  This one has a fair amount of humor and is light on the noir, with any sort of crime not really materializing until the final chapters of the novel.

What mystery there is centers around the neighbor, a fragile, pale woman with the overprotective older friend of her deceased father hovering nearby and a lot of unanswered questions--if only our protagonist could keep his wits about him long enough to answer them.

More a study of mental unraveling than a crime novel, Garnier still writes with a speed and wit that makes his writing readable for the discerning.

This is the final novel in a collection I purchased titled Gallic Noir Volume 2.

#36: The Islanders by Pascal Garnier

During a frigid winter, an alcoholic man's estranged elderly mother dies, and when he returns home to her apartment he finds his former love (and her blind brother) now live across the hall, tipping over a dark past in Pascal Garnier's The Islanders.

Garnier wrote a lot of short, intense French noirs, often laced with dark humor.  This one is in a collection I picked up some time ago.  I stick a toe in only every so often as his books are often gruesome, nihilistic, and populated with unpleasant characters.

In this, we gradually learn that the ill-fated couple, as teens, has been responsible for the (perhaps inadvertent, perhaps not) death of a young boy, and escaped unscathed.  As they reunite, a young homeless man, and then a policeman, come to abrupt ends.

Garnier is a great noir writer and rewarding for the discriminating reader.

#12: Moon in a Dead Eye by Pascal Garnier

Two couples buy into a retirement community which is unsettling in its emptiness, save for a sinister groundskeeper and a stoned activities coordinator; and then when a single woman moves in, civility is abruptly ripped away in Pascal Garnier's Moon in a Dead Eye.

Garnier was a French noir writer whose novels veer from dark comedy to bleak tragedy, and even with the unusual setting and characters (elderly in a retirement community) this one follows that formula.  There is murder, sex, animal cruelty, and a fire of unknown origin just to mention the top few plot points.  And the novel's title does not refer to the moon in a dead eye for artistic sake alone.

I enjoy French noir in films and novels and am quickly becoming a Garnier fan as more of his work appears in English.  I got this one in a collection called Gallic Noir Volume 2 and read the slender volume quickly.

#37: The Front Seat Passenger by Pascal Garnier

A man's wife is killed in a car accident with another man in the passenger seat, thus revealing an affair; so the widower begins to stalk the widow, with unintended consequences in Pascal Garnier's The Front Seat Passenger.

Garnier's novel reminded me of other French noir writers like Jean-Patrick Manchette and Seabastien Japrisot; inky-black comedy, existential crises, bleak storylines.

This one has about two-thirds of an unreliable narrator storyline and one third surprising mayhem, with a handful of murders. leading to a downbeat courtroom finale.

Garnier's novel is slim, and packs a punch.  I got it from Amazon in a collection called Gallic Noir Volume 2 and read it quickly.