Femme Noir [Paperback]

Clara Nipper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

Dames, booze and murder is the oldest story in the book; but this time, it happens too fast to Nora Delaney, who is a notorious, womanizing college basketball coach. After her ex is found murdered, Nora chases the scent all the way from Los Angeles to Tulsa to find some right angles in this nasty business only to be waylaid by a gorgeous, gin-swilling skirt who has information as well as an appetite for women like Nora. Femme Noir is full of cock-eyed optimism, vivid sexual fantasy, tough broads and big babes who know their ways around drinks, trash talk and murder. If you enjoy satire, you'll have fun with this book. Femme Noir is intended as a wry homage to retro outlooks of a bygone tough guy/femme fatale age. In this book is something to offend everyone."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 287 pages
• Publisher: Bold Strokes Books; 2nd edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602821178
• ISBN-13: 978-1602821170
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,790,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clara Nipper is a writer and derby girl. Her books, Femme Noir and the sequel, Kiss of Noir, are both from Bold Strokes Books. She is currently working on a new murder mystery involving a horndog homicide detective tentatively titled: Murder on the Rocks. Clara's hobbies include: fanatical gardening in her certified wildlife habitat, candy-making for her artisan company, andyscandies.org, and skating under the name Cat Owta Hell for Green Country Roller Girls Thunder Dollz, www.greencountryrollergirls.com. Clara also enjoys wrestling plot lines into reluctant submission and collecting particularly creative rejection letters. Contact Clara at www.claranipper.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this wonderful new storyteller!, February 6, 2008

By 

Tigger67 "Tigger67" (Jenks, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Femme Noir (Paperback)

Ms. Nipper is a wonderful storyteller. Her voice and characters are like no others. I heartily recommend this brilliant debut!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars C-R-A-P, August 31, 2010

By 

clitfan "clitfan" (bay area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Femme Noir (Paperback)

This is a terrible read. Don't waste your money. A not very interesting story. The black protagonist refers to white women as "cracker" and "white b---," yet she still lusts after one. I guess it's fitting that the author is white. At any rate, don't waste your time or money on this one.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The cover says this book will be offensive; it is, July 7, 2008

By 

Sage320 (Newport News, VA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Femme Noir (Paperback)

Nora Delaney is an extremely successful college basketball coach and a well-known womanizer. When she's not on the court, she's in someone's bed or in a bar and she enjoys her life. She's not very happy when she gets a bizarre phone call from her ex-lover Michelle asking for help, but she's really shaken up when she finds out the next day that Michelle has been murdered. Nora decides to take a trip from LA to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to try and find out what happened. In Tulsa, she learns that she really didn't know anything about a woman she lived with for years. She also meets a group of women who are extremely eclectic in their personalities. Nora finds herself torn between chasing after an enticing woman and trying to find out what happened to Michelle. The closer she gets to the answer to that, the less sure she is that she wants to know what it is.

Femme Noir is meant to be a flashback to the movies of the 1950's that were black and white and peopled by tough guys and tougher babes. The print in the book is done to look like it was written on an old typewriter to capture that feeling and there are plenty of scenes based around bars, smoking, sex, and tough talk. The back blurb says that the book is a satire full of cock-eyed optimism. The satire is certainly there, but it's heavy handed and forced, while optimism is probably not a word the reader will associate with this book. Dialogue is not witty, but often ridiculous and many of the situations don't seem to have relevance to the plot.

"In this book is something to offend everyone." This statement from the back blurb is the truest statement about the book. Nora Delaney is written to be an African American woman and she makes statements about white people that tread on the edge of being blatantly racist. The reader might excuse this as trying to see American society through the eyes of a black woman, so it will be a shock to know that the author is a white woman. There is something unsettling about the words that come out of Nora's mouth when the character talks about whites and then when she talks about blacks and the reader remembers a white woman is writing the words. In creating Nora's character, Nipper gave her all of the negative characteristics of the "tough guys" of the noir films. That means she treats women totally as sex objects and her descriptions of them are phrased in the rawest language possible. Since Nipper's stated goal was to offend everyone, she would have to be considered successful, but this book is not enjoyable to read. Most of what is in it will probably bother you.