A deadly professional assassin prized for his aim and reflexes, Martin Terrier returns to Paris after his latest job determined to get out of the game. Ten years ago he made a promise to return to his childhood sweetheart in the south of France, and he wants to get married and settle down. But his employers have other plans. A key target - an Arab oil magnate - is flying in to Paris, and there is only one man fit for the task of eliminating him. As Martin is tailed southwards, it appears his employers will stop at nothing to regain his service. In a style ruthlessly stripped of all sentiment, Jean-Patrick Manchette delivers a masterclass in lean, muscular storytelling. Each moment in the suspense plot is described in forensic detail, and violent shocks are executed with unflinching accuracy. Perhaps most compelling are the tantalising glimpses ? betrayed by the barest physical ticks ? that Manchette offers us into the otherwise inscrutable inner life of his protagonist, the prone gunman.

Manchette?s are lean, muscular books that deserve serious reading? James Sallis ?Manchette offers an insight into the ugly world of the professional killer, his precise writing capturing this fast-paced and ruthless lifestyle? the atmosphere of mistrust and confusion felt in the novel come alive? Big Issue ?Lean noir writing, both muscular and economical, and when the violence inevitably erupts, it does so with shocking effect? Guardian ?France?s king of noir fiction? he writes with a bleak, tragic beauty that ensares more than it repels? Brilliant? The Times ?A stylish and uncompromising noir with a whiff of Gallic existentialism to complete the amorality? a short sharp shock of a novel? Daily Telegraph ?Turns pulp fiction into art... The story of his professional and personal impotence is related in cool, unforgiving prose? Independent ?A few pages into the yarn and you?re simply enthralled? Sunday Tribune ?The business? Observer

Jean Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) rescued the French crime novel from the grip of Maigret and methodical police procedurals - restoring the noir edge by virtue of his post-1968 leftism. Jazz saxophonist, political activist, and screenwriter, Manchette was influenced as much by Guy Debord as by Dashiell Hammett. He remains an inspiration to the new generation of French mystery writers who have come in his wake.