Fatale

Name: Fatale
Price: 24.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781529977288

Jean-Patrick Manchette, Donald Nicholson-Smith

$24.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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French

Vintage Classics
26 May 2026

Fiction & Literature; Classic crime; Thriller & suspense; Fiction in translation; Greeting cards

Radical, ruthless - and razor-sharp. Welcome to the brutal, revolutionary crime thrillers of Jean-Patrick Manchette, reissued by Vintage Classics in a major new celebratory series

'The French noir novel you need to help you vent your frustrations right now' LitHub

Murder isn't always ugly.

Aimee is drop-dead gorgeous, razor-sharp, and lethally efficient. A killer with a cool head and a taste for chaos, she arrives in the backwater town of Bleville - a festering stew of grudges, corruption, and small-town rot - ready to make a killing.

It's a game she's played before- stir up trouble, pit the locals against one another, then disappear with blood on her hands and money in her pocket. But this time, something breaks and the game turns on her.

Jean-Patrick Manchette transformed the crime novel into a weapon of satire and stylish mayhem. Fatale is his bloodiest, funniest, and most brilliantly unhinged work- a riot of revenge, farce, and gleeful destruction.

PRAISE FOR JEAN-PARICK MANCHETTE

'Manchette was Le Homme... We must revere him now and rediscover him this very instant. ' James Ellroy

'A comedic genius... I read and reread him, stunned, appalled, and laughing out loud' Rachel Kushner

'Manchette is one of the greatest writers since Dashiell Hammett, his only true son and heir' David Peace

'Manchette is Camus on overdrive... He deserves much the same attention' James Sallis

'Manchette is legend among all of the crime writers I know, and with good reason- his novels never fail to stun and thrill from page one' Duane Swierczynski

By: Jean-Patrick Manchette
Translated by: Donald Nicholson-Smith
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 9mm
Weight: 82g
ISBN: 9781529977288
ISBN 10: 1529977282
Pages: 112
Publication Date: 26 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) was a crime novelist, screenwriter, critic, and translator. In 1971 he published his first novel and went on to establish a new genre of French novel, the neo-polar. Vintage Classics publishes his Fatale, Nada, No Room at the Morgue and Skeletons in the Closet.

Reviews for Fatale

France's king of noir fiction…he writes with a bleak, tragic beauty * The Times * Shocking, funny, sad, smart and cool… A macabre delight from start to finish * Big Issue * A fist between the eyes, leaving the reader reeling… So devastating it takes your breath away * Complete Review * Manchette's books are all action, unfolding with a laconic efficiency that would make his killers proud * The Economist * I’d rather read Manchette than many contemporary noir writers. -- Sarah Weinman * New York Times * This pair of explosive, absurd French crime thrillers – with plenty of oh là là and even more zut alors – will cheer you up and help you forget the desperate weather… these [are] funny, nasty, perpetually surprising books * The Times *