Total Chaos: Marseilles Trilogy, Book One

Total Chaos is the first book in Jean-Claude Izzo's Mediterranean Noir trilogy set in Marseilles, France. Fabio Montale, the first person narrator, is a soulful, sympathetic guide to the richness of the melting pot culture of his beloved city. Not only is Fabio an empathetic cop, he is a bon vivant who appreciates great food, cool jazz and the beautiful women of Marseilles. Much more than a crime novel, one gets to know Montale and care about the friends he protects in a city divided by racial tensions and dramatic political polarization. The progressive Montale becomes increasingly uncomfortable in the role of policeman in a city rife with corruption. By the end of the novel, he is ready to leave the police force, and the reader is ready to go on to the second novel in the trilogy, Chourmo, to find out what he will do next.

Total Chaos puts you in the middle of modern Marseilles, warts and all. This book has a set of complex subplots and a large cast of characters, but the star is Marseilles itself. If you like the sense of place in Chandler and Ellroy, you will like what Izzo does with Marseilles. Izzo's writing is very direct and he rarely approaches cliche or solipsism. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Jean-Claude Izzo's Spartan writing hits the perfect pitch in this classic hardboiled detective story. The first volume of the Marseilles Trilogy, "Total Chaos" introduces Fabio Montale, a disillusioned cop attempting to resolve the murders of his boyhood chums, Ugo and Manu. By a quirk of fate Fabio became a cop while his pals followed a path of crime that led to their deaths. Along the way the reader gets an account of these sons of Italian immigrants growing up on the hard streets of Marseilles's seedier neighborhoods where they knew "their bodies and clothes smelled of mildew ... But they didn't give a damn. They loved life. They were good looking. And they knew how to fight." But that was the past. Not only are Ugo and Manu gone, but Fabio must face a lost love, Lole, and investigate the brutal rape and murder of Leila, the daughter of a good friend. Feeling like an exile, Fabio haunts the city -- "In which dawn is merely an illusion that the world is beautiful." -- eating, drinking, having his way with beautiful women, spurning deep relationships, and occasionally escaping for some fishing in the Mediterranean. Through Fabio's eyes, Izzo paints a sentimental portrait of the city in all its beauty and brutality. His portrayal of Marseilles's seaport, neighborhoods, food, music, politics, and racial tensions raise this novel above the classic hardboiled crime story.

This book takes the reader to the heart of exotic Marseilles -- a city defined by its immigrant population and the intrigue that rages among good guys, bad guys and victims. I found the book notable for its intimate portrayal of this rambunctious city and the impact of its race politics. On top of it all, it is a good police thriller, made so by a local detective who seeks to avenge two childhood friends who were brutally slain. The search for their killers takes Detective Fabio Montale into the angry worlds of race bias, crime (organized and not), love and sex (illicit and not). The late author also laces his book with references to the food, wine, music and culture of the region. This, the first in Izzo's Marseilles trilogy, is a rich book, well told. And when you finish it, you will know Marseilles.

Jean-Claude Izzo in his brief career was a foundational figure in the history of European Noir literature, and this book initiates his most popular books, a trilogy of novels set in Marseilles. There is a lot that is appealing in the book, so I can well imagine why in the 1990's it garnered the attention that it did, although I found it only above-average by the standards of the hard-boiled American mysteries with which I'm familiar, and the bewildering number of secondary characters did not help. I'm in no position to assess Howard Curtis' translation, but the staccato prose with endless sentence fragments was unappealing to me, and the protagonist's tendency to philosophise was rarely an asset. An interesting book, worth taking a look at for someone wanting a different flavor or setting in a detective novel or someone interested in contemporary European popular literature.

Total chaos is a about a Marseillaise detective named Fabio Montale. In a sequence of ambiguously related events, three of his closest childhood friends are killed. Fabio must piece together the puzzle, navigating through corrupt cops, drug dealers and pimps, and mafia sectors. Total chaos was a good mystery book, but the lasting impression is from the emotional and ideological weight of the novel. It shows you not only how marseilles looks, but how it feels. It lends its characters real emotions of the most poignant variety, all the while producing them in a way that is comprehensible and relatable. Izzo's Total Chaos stands apart from any book I have read so far.

This book is thick in noir, breathe it in and enjoy the atmosphere. The world (and the food!) is well developed and gritty. The main characters are great, but the bad guys (so many of them) kind of run together. The story is a little messy, and comes together for the conclusion a little to easily, which kept me from giving it five stars. But I will read the rest of the trilogy just for the atmosphere

Izzo takes the crime novel beyond the usual limits of psychopathic motivation. The underworld becomes a microcosm of social illness. A worthwhile read.

Definitely worth a read, great to see stories set in Marseille.

The real star of this story is Marseilles. It is as much a character in 'Total Chaos' as any human being. The story itself is good but not that original. I felt that I'd seen most of the characters and their relationships and motivations more than a few times in just about every cop movie/tv series of the last thirty years. The author also has a tendency to revel in the detail of every meal our hero eats. I know some people like that but it gets a little irritating after a while. That said, I will read the two remaining novels in the trilogy.

Total Chaos is the instalment in Izzo’s Marseilles Trilogy featuring Fabio Montale. First published in 1995 it is said to be the originator of ‘Mediterranean noir.’ The strength of the story is its very strong sense of place and time, with Izzo placing the reader in the complex social geography of the Marseilles and its mix of immigrants, stalling economy, racial and class tension, corruption, and its sights, sounds, smells and taste (especially food); it's a city he clearly loves despite its tensions and problems. The characterisation is well realised, with a fairly large cast of players. The story itself, however, is a little too complex, entwining two separate plotlines, relying on a couple of plot devices to do so, and overall it feels a little too contrived and with too many cliches in terms of the characters and plot. As a result, I was never quite captured or captivated by the story. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting enough noir read, with a very strong sense of place.

A friend of mine passed on to me the trilogy in French which I thoroughly enjoyed so I bought this copy as a gift for a friend who doesn't read French - she too is really enjoying it! I was very happily impressed when I received the book just a couple of days after placing my order.

Great foreign crime, perhaps leaning more towards 'serious' literature in a typically melancholy/thoughtful 'European' way. Some of the themes from the first in the trilogy were carried over with a slight feeling of repetition, and I'm still trying to source 'Solea', the final book in the trilogy. For a change from the French/Italian/Scandi crime try the Czech based [[[...]]] which I highly recommend for those who like hard boiled modern crime.