The final volume of Izzo's Marseilles Trilogy goes so far beyond typical noir that it defies labeling. For one thing, it takes on the pervading presence of evil and corruption in the whole world--not just in a town (as in Hammett's Red Harvest) or in the hearts of a few individuals, as in most noir novels, where the atmosphere can be pretty claustrophobic. Izzo achieves the same effect with Solea's cast of characters, most of whom are familiar from the first two volumes of the series, but the forces of evil have multiple layers--of most immediate concern, of course, being the heartless killers who are preying on Fabio Montale's friends in the pursuit of information about the mafia's infiltration into every aspect of western business and politics--the second layer. Obviously, don't jump in here. If you have read the first two books, you'll be compelled to read this one. Izzo was a fabulous writer, who weaves the sights and sounds and smells of Marseilles into almost every paragraph. In true noir fashion, the characters consume untold quantities of alcohol--pastis being the favorite of Montale--but they also partake of local food, described in loving detail. In the face of such evil, food and drink seem to be one way of salvaging a little joy out of a hard, sometimes hopeless life. The other way of course, is love, and that is a central part of this remarkable trilogy as well. No spoilers, but read the trilogy, and prepare to feel something in your gut you rarely get from literature. And then ponder that since Izzo died in 2000, things have only gotten worse. ( )

> Babette, jeune journaliste marseillaise, a de gros ennuis. Le rêve de sa vie, un grand reportage sur la mafia dans le Sud de la France, est sur le point d'aboutir. Mais à quel prix ! Il lui a déjà coûté la vie de son amant et elle est poursuivie par d'impitoyables tueurs. Réfugiée dans les Cévennes, elle envoie son travail à son ami, l'ancien policier Fabio Montale. Aussitôt, les morts s'accumulent autour de lui. La rage au ventre, Montale cherche à venger les innocents mais cette fois-ci, l'adversaire est de taille !
Après les mythiques Total Khéops et Chourmo, Solea vient clore de façon très pessimiste cette trilogie marseillaise dûment documentée. Une impressionnante descente aux enfers, au plus profond des magouilles financières les plus sordides et de la méchanceté humaine la plus noire. On en ressort édifié, le sang glacé et le souffle coupé. Indispensable !
—Sophie Colpaert, Amazon.fr

The third and final book in Izzo’s Marseilles Trilogy is a story shrouded in melancholy. Not because it is the last book, or because of how it all ends (Note: if you are looking for a happy ending, don’t read a hard-boiled crime novel). Izzo’s love for Marseilles pervades this story, even more so than in the earlier two books. The overall atmosphere is one of bitter sweet resignation, a eulogy for what has passed and a weeping for what has become (think lone saxophone player playing a sorrowful tune against the backdrop of a “fading to black” purple sky).

By book three, Izzo’s characters feel like family. I love Montale’s loner personality, his motherly neighbour Honorine and the bar owners Felix and Fonfon who make up Montale’s very small network of friends. What I also love is the array of iconic women that parade through Montale’s life. They are strong women, all prepared to face life head on and not just accept the crumbs that might be doled out to them. Of course, it is because of a woman that Montale finds himself being dragged against his will back into the bloodbath that is organized crime’s way of dealing with anyone who threatens to rock their boat so I like how it is another woman, Helene Pessayre, the most recent in a string of police captain who have tangled with Montale, who shares Montale’s dream of a Marseilles freed from the clenches of organized crime and corruption.

Overall, another solid hard-boiled crime novel and the perfect capstone to Izzo’s trilogy with some surprising themes about the importance of community and friendship. ( )

Third and blackest of Izzo's Marseille novels. Fabio Montale is in an impossible position: a mafia killer is looking for Fabio's friend, the investigative journalist Babette, who has gone into hiding after finding out more than is good for her about money laundering systems and the political links of organised crime. The killer wants Fabio to lead him to Babette, and proposes to murder Fabio's friends one by one until he finds her. Meanwhile, Fabio's despair about the departure of his girlfriend Lole is only getting worse.

Not a cheerful, optimistic book, by any means, and the sunny passages in the earlier books about Mediterranean food and music have largely been replaced by excerpts from official reports and newspaper articles about the growth of organised crime in Europe. The message is essentially that if we don't confront the problem, it will destroy our society; but anyone who does try to do something about it had better be prepared to see their own life and everything they hold dear destroyed. I guess Izzo knew he was dying when he wrote this one. ( )

A perfect book. Perfect for an old man in despair, regretting all, surrounded by death, by loss, by machines grinding his world to nothing. Perfect.

OK, maybe the newspaper article on the mafia was never ending, but a book pretty close to perfect.

Just the thing to give that cherry, hopeful neighbor, to knock him down so you two can brood and quietly kill a liquor bottle or two.

Just the thing to read before you die.

Whatabook
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