Skeletons in the Closet | 
so-soLike a mix between a classic hard-boiled detective novel and a 90s action movie, the story moved a mile a minute, one violent set piece after another. It should have been thrilling, but I found it difficult to care, at least through the first half of the book. The characters were one-dimensional, the writing was unbearably clunky at times, and I felt mostly numb every time someone was dispatched in some brutal fashion. It was almost a "pan" but ?
The_Penniless_Author I rounded up for a few reasons: 1) the writing does tighten up and becomes a lot wittier as the story progresses, 2) the main characters appeared in previous novels, and Manchette dispenses with backstory, which may account for why they didn't feel fleshed-out at first, and 3) it's possible some of the clunky writing was down to the translation (I'd guess Raymond Chandler's slang wouldn't always translate nicely into French, either). I know 👇 14mo
The_Penniless_Author a lot of people swear by Manchette, and those same people think that his Eugene Tarpon novels are probably his weakest (and this one the weakest of those, to boot), so I'll certainly give his other books a shot. 14mo
Suet624 That‘s disappointing… 13mo
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