West Coast Blues

Book excerpt: George Gerfaut, aimless young executive and desultory family man, witnessesa murder and finds himself sucked into a spiral of violence involving an exiledwar criminal and two hired assassins. Adapting to the exigencies of his new lifeon the run with shocking ease, Gerfaut abandons his comfortable middle-classlife for several months, until, joined with a new ally, he finally returns tosettle all accounts... with brutal, bloody interest. Released in 2005, WestCoast Blues (Le Petit bleu de la côte ouest) is Tardi's adaptation ofa popular 1976 novel by the French crime writer Jean-Patrick Manchette. (Thenovel had been previously adapted to film under the more literal title Troishommes à abattre, and was released in English by the San Francisco-basedpublisher City Lights under the English version of the same title, 3 toKill.) Tardi's late-period, looser style infuses Manchette's dark story witha seething, malevolent energy; he doesn't shy away from the frequently grislygoings-on, while maintaining (particularly in the old-married-couple-stylebickering of the two killers who are tracking Gerfaut) the mordant wit thatcharacterizes his best work. This is the kind of graphic novel that QuentinTarantino would love, and a double shot of Scotch for any fan of unrelenting,uncompromising crime fiction