Noir

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 set on the mean streets of post–World War II San Francisco.

“[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)

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 go to guy; 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 of the rich and powerful 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.