No Room at the Morgue

"Manchette was Le Homme...rediscover him this very instant" — James Ellroy

Meet Eugène Tarpon: ex-cop, ex-idealist, man in free fall. Kicked off the force for killing a protestor, Tarpon is drinking too much and waiting around for something to happen. Then it does. In bursts the wild-eyed and bloodstained Memphis Charles, whose roommate has been brutally murdered. And she wants no one but Tarpon on the case. As the bodies mount, Tarpon is dragged into a Parisian underworld of politics, sleaze, and paranoia – with nothing to guide him but instinct, stubbornness, and a battered sense of justice.

With No Room at the Morgue, Manchette rewrote the American hardboiled detective novel into a bleak, boozy, and brilliantly French bruising meditation on guilt, truth, and the art of going down swinging.

Praise for Jean-Patrick Manchette

"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