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Fatale
- Author
- Jean-Patrick Manchette
- Narrator
- Amrita Acharia
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 5 February 2026
- Run Time
- 2 hours 56 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Murder isn’t always ugly.
Aimée 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 Bléville – 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
‘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
© Jean-Patrick Manchette 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
Critics Review
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France's king of noir fiction…he writes with a bleak, tragic beauty
The Times
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Shocking, funny, sad, smart and cool… A macabre delight from start to finish
Big Issue
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A fist between the eyes, leaving the reader reeling… So devastating it takes your breath away
Complete Review
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Manchette's books are all action, unfolding with a laconic efficiency that would make his killers proud
The Economist
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I’d rather read Manchette than many contemporary noir writers.
New York Times
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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
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Jean-Patrick Manchette
- Narrator
- Amrita Acharia
- Duration
- 2 hours 56 minutes
- Release Date
- 5 February 2026
- ISBN
- 9781529980028
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Crime and mystery: hard-boiled crime, noir fiction, Classic crime and mystery fiction, Novella (Short Novel), Fiction in translation
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.Murder isn’t always ugly.Aimée 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 Bléville – 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‘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© Jean-Patrick Manchette 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
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