Manchette at the height of his powers in a corrosive parody of "the success story."

Jean-Patrick Manchette (December 19, 1942, Marseille – June 3, 1995, Paris) was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the 1970s and early 80s, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of that time. His stories are violent, existentialist explorations of the human condition and French society. Jazz saxophonist and screenwriter, Manchette was also a left-wing activist influenced as much by the writings of the Situationist International as by Dashiell Hammett.

Four of his novels have been translated into English. Two were published by City Lights Books: Three To Kill and The Prone Gunman, which is also available in a movie-tie in edition titled, The Gunman.