Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo (trans. Howard Curtis)
A good modern noir crime novel set in Marsailles, this has it all. A gritty setting, drugs, mafia, sex, food, booze, friendships lost, murder, mayhem, racism, and despair. Fabio Montale is a tired policeman trying to find out why his estranged childhood friends and the girl he loved were murdered. Were the three murders related? What does it all mean? Burried in the supercharged atmosphere of the projects, it’s the Arabs against the Nationalists against the Mafia against the corrupt Police against the grizzled good guys.
As the story goes, it’s pretty stock stuff. But the mood and atmosphere created by the writing (and, probably, translation) are what really make this book. It’s sometimes hard to remember that this takes place in modern times as it’s so easy to picture Sydney Greenstreet, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Mitchem as some of the characters. In black and white. Loving descriptions of cooking and jazz round out the mood.
Great reading.
