Total Chaos »

Izzo achieved astounding success with his Marseilles Trilogy. In addition to the books in this trilogy, his two novels and one collection of short stories also enjoyed great success with both critics and the public. Izzo, author of Total Chaos, died in 2000 at the age of 55.

"Jean-Claude Izzo's . . . growing literary renown and huge sales are leading to a recognizable new trend in continental fiction: the rise of the sophisticated Mediterranean thriller. . . . Caught between pride and crime, racism and fraternity, tragedy and light, messy urbanization and generous beauty, the city for [detective Fabio Montale] is a Utopia, an ultimate port of call for exiles. There, he is torn between fatalism and revolt, despair and sensualism."-The Economist

This first installment in the legendary Marseilles Trilogy sees Fabio Montale turning his back on a police force marred by corruption and racism and taking the fight against the mafia into his own hands.

Jean-Claude Izzo achieved astoundingly rapid success with his Marseilles Trilogy. He died in Marseilles in 2000 at the age of 55.

Publishers Weekly

A love quadrangle that has lain dormant for 20 years-three men and one woman, friends and successive partners in childhood and young adulthood-resurfaces with a vengeance in this literary policier. Italian emigre Fabio Montale is the beat cop in Marseille's La Paternelle, an Arab ghetto that sits at the center of the city's seething melting pot of immigration, xenophobia and corruption. He's the last of the three men left standing after Manu, a Spanish emigre, is killed (probably by the mob) and Ugo (a nabo, or Neapolitan) is killed by police while staking out the boss he thinks ordered the hit. Manu was the partner of Lole, also from Spain and Ugo's ex-lover. If the deaths aren't enough to spur Fabio to action, the disappearance of his former lover Leila, an Arab who had made it out of La Paternelle, puts him on the case-and back in Lole's life. Izzo, who died in 2000 at age 55, puts a sophisticated spin on mob-murder-mystery clich s and airs French race politics frankly-the latter is what made this (and two related novels) a hit there. This novel won't electrify U.S. readers in the same way, but it's a hard-boiled and entertaining look at the underside of la politesse. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.