Mystery Review: Three to Kill is the story of hapless hunters hunting the hapless hunted. The story starts slow with our middle-management, chess-playing, corporate cog ("someone who doesn't remotely want adventures"), but when it gets going try to hang on as gangsters and hitmen join the fray. Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) knows how to tell a tale. Told by an extremely omniscient narrator in a cinematic style Three to Kill is just good fun meant to be enjoyed. A neo-noir and thriller, there are moments of violence and gore, but they pale compared to the cogent character studies and the reader can almost hear the soundtrack of west coast jazz, with scads of hip musicians cited. The French title seems to be something like "Little West Coast Blues." Cars, guns, alcohol, and films are near and dear to Manchette and always come in for proper names and specifics from the narrator (at one point a Ford Taunus is introduced; if you think that's a misprint for Taurus it's not, there's a German car of that name (after a German mountain range)). As always with Manchette there's a political underlay to everything, but it never gets in the way being more food-for-thought than diatribe. Three to Kill (the English title is also a plot summary) is a short, entertaining, thrill ride for any reader of physical mysteries, but doesn't skimp on the cerebral. [4★]
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