Fatale, (1977,) by Jean-Patrick Manchette, is my first French noir novel. Translated by Donald Nicholson Smith and published by the New York Review of Books, I borrowed this slim volume from our county library. I read it in two sittings, wondering, after the first, if I wanted to finish it and I still wonder.
There is not one likeable person in the story line which involves a hit woman who has a string of money making jobs she finds by ingratiating herself into a smallish French community, finding who wants to have who killed, and performing the task for money. In Fatale, however, she out does herself by finding a whole group of community bigwigs who anyone might want to snuff out.
So, lots of voyeuristic integration into Aimee’s setup and how she goes about digging up the dirt on her future victims. Some interesting plot twists and a hard boiled noir tone make it an easy, if bloody reading.
Two stars – check it out.
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