No room at the morgue

Ex-cop Eugène Tarpon is on the point of giving up his ailing private eye business in Paris and going home to mother when … yes, you guessed it, a beautiful young woman appears in his office late at night, seeking his help. But this is a second-generation French noir story, so he tells her to go away and talk to the cops instead. Needless to say, he reconsiders a few hours later, and soon finds himself mixed up in a colourful and confusing story involving starlets, would-be urban guerrillas, foreign agents and American gangsters. And a fair assortment of corpses, as the title implies.

Manchette provides a fast-moving narrative that refuses to take itself seriously, simultaneously exploiting the conventions of classic noir and making show more fun of them. Tarpon is an uncharacteristic private eye, by fictional standards: a former rank-and-file gendarme who couldn‘t face staying in the force after inadvertently killing a protester during a demonstration, he seems to spend a lot of his time overwhelmed by the mess he’s fallen into. Without his chance sidekick, the retired journalist Haymann, it’s hard to imagine him investigating anything more serious than a straying spouse. But then occasionally his reflexes seem to lead him lightning fast out of difficult situations. Good fun, despite the piles of corpses. show less

Befuddled private detective, an ex-police officer who left the force after killing a demonstrator, is draw into a labyrinth of confusion as he seeks a murderer--who may be his client. He gets a lot of help from a retired journalist, and there is a lot to enjoy in the series of episodes, although the overall story isn't as successful as it should be. Too much confusion and murkiness--although that does reflect real life.

Anche se non all'altezza del magnifico "Posizione di tiro" [La position du tireur couché] (la trama è in alcuni punti un po' debole), questo libro è notevole per l'ottima caratterizzazione dell'antieroe, il detective Eugène Tarpon, che sarà protagonista di un altro romanzo di Manchette.

While not as good as the magnificent "The Prone Gunman" [La position du tireur couché] (the plot is weak in some parts), this one is notable for the really good characterization of the antihero, the detective Eugène Tarpon, who will be featured in another novel by Manchette.