The title is appropriate. This is a pretty unhinged, mostly chase, thriller about a dying killer, a somewhat deranged nanny, a rich architect and his ward, a few more killers, and a lot of innocent bystanders. The little details about places and things, together with the nonstop action and excellent writing (and translation) make this an enjoyable romp. Despite the level of violence, the treatment makes it less dark and serious than the other Manchette books I have recently read. But in any case, he was a master. ( )

La legge e l'ordine.
Possiamo vivere senza la polizia?
...
Cosa significa la disgregazione dei valori?
Negli ultimi tempi verranno momenti difficili.
Paul Zwickau (91)

Forse meglio come trama di un telefilm (oppure il fumo uccide... anche la creativita'!). ( )

The Mad and the Bad. Jean-Patrick Manchette. 1972. New York Review Classics. Good Grief. This needs to be a Quention Tarrantino movie! I don’t if I have ever read a book that combines so much slap-stick comedy with violence! Hartag, a rich businessman who hires Julie from an insane asylum to look after his spoiled bratty nephew and then contracts with Thompson, a hired killer with an ulcer to kill them. Julie and the nephew escape and a chase, worthy of Smokey and the Bandit ensues! What a crazy book! Oh, he is a French writer; Francophiles will enjoy the descriptions of the French countryside. ( )

Entertaining fling of a book. Is it a Tarantino movie yet? Seems like it is made for it with over the top violence (the grocery store in flames, the bad guy consumed in a kiln, body parts flying every which way). A crime story about a rich fellow plotting to kill his troublesome nephew for no good reason, hiring a professional killer with a very bad psychosomatic ulcer who brings along some dull French thugs to help. A semi crazy lady who gets off pretty lightly - considering the brutal killing she indulges in. yes, it is French in all its meaninglessness and ennui. Good, but... just a yarn, right? ( )

Great little noir novella that you will want to read in one sitting. Manchette's prose is sharp and exact. In very few words he gives you an idea of who or what or where. Even his metaphor is terse. Short sentences. Cinematic at times like a montage in film. Snapshots even when the action gets hot.

Rich architect hires a pretty young woman that hates men who he knows is schizophrenic to be the nanny for his precocious but ill mannered nephew. In fact all his servants have a handicap of some sort. On the surface he seems charitable but we know from the narrator that he's an asshole. What is going on here? Hired guns, bad friends, and kidnappers fill out the roster. Everyone has baggage from the past but in most cases Manchette only hints at what it might be leaving the reader to guess at motivation. The nanny is no sucker but she's crazier than bat shit and deadlier than a snake but can she get it together long enough to keep her and the nephew alive?

Great little book. ( )