Leo Malet Revisited

A while back I wrote about discovering Leo Malet, a French hard-boiled writer whose first book was published during World War II. He sounded interesting and I fired off an order for his very first book. I’ve read it and while it probably isn’t the best hardboiled novel I’ve ever read, still it is very good. And there is much to interest me in the time and setting. To my great surprise, some days letter came an e-mail from Kent Morgan up in Winnipeg, Manitoba saying he had found a nice copy of Mission to Marseilles in his local book shop. Would I care to have him buy it for me? Would I!! I was elated to find a reader so accommodating. I was even more elated to find a reader.

Then what to my utter delight a second reader, Peter Hopkinson, wrote to say that he had two titles which were extras. Would I care to buy them? Now I know that I have at least five readers of this blog. And what’s more I will soon have four of the nine Malet books that were translated and published by Pan Books in England. Wonders never cease.

So my hat is off to you two gentlemen for taking the time to respond and to Kent for taking the time to go to the shop and buy the book for me. He said that he goes there often but still he made the effort to contact me and to mail the package. Stay tuned and you may learn more about Leo Malet and his books.