Manchette's The Mad and the Bad, first published in 1972, has recently been translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith and published by New York Review Books. It is a taut crime thriller which opens as wealthy Parisian architect Michel Hartog springs Julie Ballanger from a New Age mental hospital and hires her to look after his nephew, Peter, a boy of six or seven whose parents died in a plane crash. Meanwhile, Thompson, a vicious hit man with a queasy stomach, eats choucroute after a particularly grisly job. Very soon Thompson is recruited by a mysterious client to kidnap Julie and Peter and kill them, making their deaths look like the work of the mentally unstable nanny. While the kidnapping takes place the wheels begin to go off their operation fairly soon as Julie and Peter escape, and are pursued across France by Thompson and his thugs. This noir thriller is particularly violent and graphic with a plot that takes place at a very high speed. Readers more familiar with France than I may better appreciate the landscape covered by the pair chased by the hired killers. Will Julie discover who hired Thompson in time to turn the tables, or will the nanny and her charge succumb to the seeming inevitable? With the addition of social criticism typical of the dissipated left-wing malaise of post-’68 France woven unobtrusively into the well-paced plot this book is entertaining for all but the squeamish. Can I drop the f-bomb on this site? I have several questions to ask after finishing this book and the all require the word. This book is crazy. This isn't your standard "psycho bad guy fights moralistic good guy" story, because that's boring. Manchette makes this much more interesting by having everyone just go insane. People are shot, people beaten to death, shopping centers are set on fire. Doesn't that sound like fun?
What do You think about Pazza Da Uccidere (1972)?
Crazy, dark, twisted, and wonderful. Also: short! Coen Brothers by way of France.
—Tessa
A bit different...and easy to read in one short sitting!
—Krysta
Fantastic book. A quick and very enjoyable read.
—Alex2809
