Tag: noir

Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette

A short read but a book with so much to unpack. Follows Aimée a killer and master manipulator who arrives in a new town and integrates into the local upper classes and plays them off each other resulting in a deadly showdown of blackmail and revenge.

I enjoyed the book and the plot moved a long nicely, the first half was great at setting the scene but then the book just came to a crescendo too quickly. It would have been nice to flesh out some of the backstory of the locals and of Aimée too. Everything just happened too fast once the shit hit the fan regarding the corruption and poisonings. This book would have benefited from an extra 50 pages.

A good noir novel though, and I am curious if there are any adaptations of it.

Gun Honey: Heatseeker Exposed 1&2

A return to the Gun Honey universe. I quite enjoyed this series when I discovered it earlier in the year. Both the main titular series and the Heatseeker spin off. This next installment is a part of the Heatseeker line of the series with the new branch called Exposed.

This installment follows the exposure of Dahlia Rivers by a journalist who outs her and an ex-client who is out to silence her once and for all. A typical pulpy read with sun, sex and violence. Great plotting and characters and action. One of the better comic book pulps out there.

Gun Honey Vol 2: Blood For Blood & Heatseeker: A Gun Honey Series by Charles Ardai

The second volume in the series and it picks up from where the previous volume ended. Again another fun and thrilling read, knowing what to expect I enjoyed it for what it was. And there is sufficient back story to add depth to it too.

Could easily see these having been 90s or early 00s B Movies or even modern ones.

Third part and I have found this quite enjoyable. It’s short and sweet and lots going on. Perhaps a little cliché and corny but it’s no worse than Roger Moore James Bond, with more boobs haha. Our main characters are largely absent in this volume, as I think this one is more of an off-shoot series than canon, but hopefully they make a return in the next. I am enjoying the story.

Gun Honey by Charles Ardai

My first time reading a non manga comic or graphic novel. It was an enjoyable read and a great noir or pulp type genre. It certainly has the art aimed at a specific audience, when the females are drawn like that you know whats coming and its not Joanna Tan (titular Gun Honey) in a shirt lol. Theres plenty of action, nudity, humour and enough plot to make it work.

I am getting back into noir and these are a fun change of pace and enough plot to keep you engaged. Obvious the typical comic book body standard with stacked women and Herculean, handsome men. I am curious to read the rest.

Its not highbrow but it is highly fun.

3.5/5