title: The Gunman (Movie Tie-In Edition) (City Lights Noir)
author:  Jean-Patrick Manchette 
description: <DIV><BR>"For Manchette and the generation of writers who followed him, the crime novel is no mere entertainment, but a means to strip bare the failures of society, ripping through veils of appearance, deceit, and manipulation to the greed and violence that are the society's true engines."--<EM>Boston Globe</EM> <BR><BR>"There's not a superfluous word or overdone effect . . . one of the last cool, compact and shockingly original crime novels Manchette left as his legacy to modern noir fiction."--<EM>New York Times Book Review</EM><BR><BR>"This is lean, mean noir fiction that cleverly sends up the tough guy genre while incarnating it perfectly."--<EM>Detroit Free Press</EM><BR><BR>"Jean-Patrick Manchette's terse prose moves like the swift, almost automatic methods and mannerisms of his protagonist."--<EM>The Wall Street Journal</EM><BR><BR>"Terse behaviorist prose . . . drives the narrative relentlessly and even gleefully forward. . . . 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'."--<EM>Publishers Weekly</EM> <BR><BR>"Manchette is a master of both economy and irony. Brutal and bracing: Terrier's tale fascinates even as it chills."--<EM>Kirkus Reviews</EM><BR></DIV><br /><br /><div><BR>"For Manchette and the generation of writers who followed him, the crime novel is no mere entertainment, but a means to strip bare the failures of society, ripping through veils of appearance, deceit, and manipulation to the greed and violence that are the society's true engines."--<I>Boston Globe</I><br><BR>"There's not a superfluous word or overdone effect . . . one of the last cool, compact and shockingly original crime novels Manchette left as his legacy to modern noir fiction."--<I>New York Times Book Review</I><BR><BR>"This is lean, mean noir fiction that cleverly sends up the tough guy genre while incarnating it perfectly."--<I>Detroit Free Press</I><BR><BR>"Jean-Patrick Manchette's terse prose moves like the swift, almost automatic methods and mannerisms of his protagonist."--<I>The Wall Street Journal</I><BR><BR>"Terse behaviorist prose . . . drives the narrative relentlessly and even gleefully forward. . . . 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'."--<I>Publishers Weekly</I><br><BR>"Manchette is a master of both economy and irony. Brutal and bracing: Terrier's tale fascinates even as it chills."--<I>Kirkus Reviews</I><BR></div>
zlib_text: Also Available by Jean-Patrick Manchette
  
  
  
  
  
  _The Prone Gunman_ (original edition)
  
  
  
  
  
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  _The Gunman_ (movie tie-in edition)
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/TheGunman.jpg)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Jean-Patrick Manchette (December 19, 1942, Marseille – June 3, 1995, Paris)
  was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the
  genre. He wrote ten short novels in the 1970s and early 80s, and is widely
  recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of that time. His
  stories are violent, existentialist explorations of the human condition and
  French society. Jazz saxophonist and screenwriter, Manchette was also a left-
  wing activist influenced as much by the writings of the Situationist
  International as by Dashiell Hammett.
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Four of his novels have been translated into English. Two were published by
  City Lights Books: _Three To Kill_ and _The Prone Gunman_ , which is also
  available in a movie-tie in edition titled, _The Gu