“He was a professional. He had no illusions. He knew that sooner or later they would get him.”
Chapter 1: The Return
Martin Terrier, a disillusioned hitman, returns to France after a decade of working for a shadowy organization. He plans to quit the business and reconnect with his childhood love, but his employers have other ideas. A tense meeting with his handler foreshadows the violence to come.
Chapter 2: The Past Resurfaces
Martin visits his hometown, hoping to find his former lover, Anne. Instead, he encounters hostility from locals who remember his violent past. Flashbacks reveal his traumatic childhood and the events that led him into contract killing. Meanwhile, his former employers begin tracking him.
Chapter 3: The Trap
Martin reunites with Anne, now married and living a quiet life. Their brief rekindling is cut short when assassins ambush him. Barely escaping, he realizes his old organization will never let him walk away. He arms himself, preparing for a brutal confrontation.
Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins
Martin goes on the offensive, targeting his former associates. A series of violent encounters leave bodies in his wake as he systematically dismantles the organization’s operations. The police, unaware of his motives, begin closing in, complicating his mission.
Chapter 5: The Betrayal
Anne’s husband, a corrupt businessman, betrays Martin to the organization. Captured and tortured, Martin barely escapes again, but not before learning the full extent of the conspiracy against him. His desperation grows as he realizes no one can be trusted.
Chapter 6: The Final Stand
Cornered in a remote safehouse, Martin faces off against a small army of assassins. In a bloody, nihilistic shootout, he takes down most of his pursuers but sustains fatal wounds. The novel ends ambiguously—his body is never found, leaving his fate unresolved.
Key Ideas
- The futility of escaping one’s past in a world governed by violence.
- Existential isolation of the professional killer, stripped of identity and connections.
- Critique of systemic corruption, where institutions and individuals alike are complicit.
- The dehumanizing effects of capitalism, reducing life to transactional brutality.
- Noir’s moral ambiguity: no heroes, only survivors and victims.
Who should read this book?
- Fans of hardboiled crime fiction and existential noir.
- Readers interested in antihero narratives and bleak, uncompromising storytelling.
- Those who appreciate critiques of power and violence in modern society.