New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From
Serpent's Tail
06 Oct-Dec
New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From
Serpent's Tail
OCT-DEC 06
Jean Patrick Manchette
Prone Gunman
Pbk published November 2006 by Serpent's Tail at £7.99
ISBN: 1852424745
Artwork by: Cover photo: © Getty Images. Cover design: At Wall UK
See Review by
Bob Cornwell
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.
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John Williams
Back to the Badlands: Crime Writing in the USA
Pbk published November 2006 by Serpent's Tail at £8.99
ISBN: 1852429216
See Review by
Bob Cornwell
In the summer of 1989, John Williams donned a baseball cap and took off for the States to search out the mythical America of modern crime fiction - to find James Ellroy's LA, Elmore Leonard's sleazy South Beach of Miami, Sara Paretsky's Chicago, and many others on an unnerving tour of the American underbelly. The result was "Into the Badlands", a riveting collection of interviews that introduced a generation of crime fans to now legendary writers.
In 2005, Williams returned to discover that much had changed in the intervening years, both in crime writing and in America as a whole. As Williams crosses America in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he finds himself in a profoundly uneasy country. Whether their territory is inner-city DC, like George Pelecanos, or the rural white poverty of the Ozark Hills, like Daniel Woodrell, the best crime writers today are sending despatches from the edge. John Williams brings their visions together to construct a powerful, personal portrait of America today.
This book also contains interviews with James Lee Burke, James Ellroy, James Crumley, Sara Paretsky, Eugene Izzi, Elmore Leonard, George V. Higgins, Vicki Hendricks, Kem Nunn, Kinky Friedman, Daniel Woodrell, and George P. Pelecanos.
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