Mike Ripley's latest 'Getting Away With Murder' column is now online at
Shots. In it he mentions the French writer Leo Malet. I'll be uploading Malet's bibliography to the Euro Crime website shortly. The nine titles available in English were printed in the 1990s and are fairly scarce, however it appears that Macmillan are reprinting one of them next year: 'Neck and Neck at La Nation', is due out in December 2008 and I believe this to be a reprint of 'Death of a Marseilles Man'.
No, "Neck-and-Neck at La nation" would be the English title bestowed upon "Casse-Pipe a La Nation" as it was originally called. "Death of a Marseille Man" is a separate novella entirely. I have read and own most of the Macmillan series having spent a few years hunting them down. I consider Malet to be among the finest of hard-boiled crime writers alongside Chandler, Hammett, Cain. Wonderful stuff. I'd love to be able to read some of his Johnny Metal series.
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