The Prone Gunman

Martin Terrier is a world-class contract killer. For ten years, he has carried out assignments with ruthless efficiency, never asking questions and never looking back. But now he wants out.

Determined to leave his reputation behind, Terrier returns to the south of France and the woman he had once been too poor to marry. But the organisation that trained him has no intention of letting its greatest asset disappear. As old allies turn on him as enemies, Terrier finds the life he sacrificed everything for suddenly slipping from his grasp.

With The Gunman, Manchette strips the thriller down to its bares bones. Bleak, precise and quietly devastating, it transforms the story of a professional killer into a haunting meditation on the cost of getting exactly what you thought you wanted.