Noir - by Christopher Moore (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir, a work of historical fiction set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more.

San Francisco. Summer, 1947. A dame walks into a saloon . . .

It's not every afternoon that a true femme fatale--an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese)--walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar. It's love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. 'Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he's got the connections on the street.

Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast in Washington State near Mount Rainier, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell, kicking off a zany UFO conspiracy. But the real weirdness is happening on the streets of the City by the Bay.

When one of Sammy's schemes goes south and the Cheese mysteriously vanishes, Sammy is forced to contend with his own dark secrets--and more than a few strange goings on--in this humorous mystery if he wants to find his girl.

Think Raymond Chandler meets Damon Runyon with more than a dash of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes All Stars. It's all very, very Noir. It's all very, very Christopher Moore.

From the Back Cover

San Francisco. Summer 1947. A dame walks into a saloon . . .

It might be love at first sight when a mysterious blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general from Roswell, New Mexico, arrives with some urgent entertainment business. 'Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he's got the connections on the street.

Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast near Mount Rainier, there's a deadly poisonous viper loose in the city, a rag-tag bunch of Sammy's night shift buddies are trying to get an angle on the action, and a dirty cop called Pookie wants in on it.

Before long, Sammy and the Cheese are making time and falling hard. But when one of Sammy's schemes goes south and the lady vanishes, Sammy has to contend with his own dark secrets as he follows a frantic trail from Chinatown to a hidden forest enclave in a desperate search to rescue his girl. Think Raymond Chandler meets Men in Black with more than a dash of the Looney Tunes All Stars. It's all very, very Noir. It's all very, very Christopher Moore.

Review Quotes

"Witty, satirical, and hilarious with a delicious quiver of crime noir hovering over all." - New York Journal of Books

"We get plenty of Moore's trademark linguistic hijinks, oddball characters, and a cartwheeling plot in danger of spinning out of control before miraculously sticking the landing." - San Antonio Express-News

"Noir turns a legendary genre on its side and offers grand entertainment at every level." - Los Angeles Review of Books

"The master of satire is back . . . Noir is a fun parody of detective fiction that has everything Christopher Moore fans have come to love and expect from his work: humor, fantasy, absurdity, and a cast of outrageous characters you won't soon forget." - Bustle

"Raymond Chandler meets the SyFy Channel... Fans of noir film and fiction will find a lot to enjoy in this loving genre tribute, and those already familiar with Moore's books will simply be in love." - Library Journal (starred review)

"There is a laugh-out-loud moment every couple of pages. And possibly a space alien, because, hey, this is a Christopher Moore book, after all." - BookPage

"Laugh out loud funny... it is always great fun to read an exceptional humorist at work." - Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

"Moore spoofs hard-boiled detective fiction in this irreverent send-up set in 1947 San Francisco. . . . [A]n amusing spin on the noir subgenre." - Publishers Weekly

"[A] pedal-to-the-metal, exquisitely written comic romp through a neon-lit San Francisco that may never have actually existed, but that, in Moore's supremely talented hands, sure feels like it could have." - Booklist (starred review)

"Moore is a master of metaphor and a sultan of simile. . . .It takes an author of remarkable talents to keep a profitably urinating snake, a dame named for a dairy product, and a slimy extraterrestrial all running through a narrative." - Washington Independent Review of Books

"[Moore's] latest novel Noir only shows a strengthened propensity for snappy dialogue, perverse scenarios, sharp satire, and oddball characters... delivered alongside steady helpings of the pun-laden prose, sick sight gags, and wicked, occasionally raunchy humor that readers have come to expect from one of America's funniest living writers." - barnesandnoble.com

"Just as he skewered science fiction in Fluke and gothic horror in You Suck, Christopher Moore gives us dizzy dames and shadowy gangsters in Noir. Sammy, Moore's comic revision of Sam Spade, will take you on a silly-thrilly ride through late-1940s San Francisco, and you'll be laughing all the way." - Washington Post

"Christopher Moore gives us dizzy dames and shadowy gangsters in Noir. Sammy, Moore's comic revision of Sam Spade, will take you on a silly-thrilly ride through late-1940s San Francisco, and you'll be laughing all the way." - Washington Post