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Noir: A Novel Kindle Edition
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 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 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 Rainer, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. 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—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.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWilliam Morrow
- Publication dateApril 17, 2018
- File size4906 KB
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From the Publisher
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| Bite Me | A Dirty Job | You Suck | Secondhand Souls | Fluke | Lamb | |
| More from Moore | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Christopher Moore is the author of seventeen previous novels, including Shakespeare for Squirrels, Noir, Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, Fool, and Lamb. He lives in San Francisco, California.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From the Back Cover
San Francisco. Summer 1947. A dame walks into a saloon . . .
It’s not every afternoon that 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 near Mount Rainier, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. But that’s nothing compared to the real weirdness happening in the City by the Bay.
Before long, Sammy and the Cheese are making time and having a gas. But when one of Sammy’s schemes goes south and the lady vanishes, Sammy must contend with his own dark secrets as he follows a tortuous trail from Chinatown to Telegraph Hill to a hidden forest enclave in a desperate search to find 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.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Review
“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
“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
“Witty, satirical, and hilarious with a delicious quiver of crime noir hovering over all.” — New York Journal of Books
“[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’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
“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
“Noir turns a legendary genre on its side and offers grand entertainment at every level.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
“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 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
“Laugh out loud funny… it is always great fun to read an exceptional humorist at work.” — Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
“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
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From the Inside Flap
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.--Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
''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)
''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)
''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)
''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)) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B07192GP7F
- Publisher : William Morrow; Unabridged edition (April 17, 2018)
- Publication date : April 17, 2018
- Language : English
- File size : 4906 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 357 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #65,903 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #73 in American Humorous Fiction
- #191 in Humorous Science Fiction (Books)
- #215 in Satire Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Christopher Moore is the author of 15 previous novels: Practical Demonkeeping, Coyote Blue, Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, A Dirty Job, You Suck, Fool, Bite Me, Sacré Bleu, The Serpent of Venice, and Secondhand Souls. He lives in San Francisco.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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I also learned that snake piss is boner medicine for Chinamen. I liked Petey the snake and was gratified that he got that man in black on the neck like that. When are the movers and shakers at Bohemian Grove gonna let you in the club, Chris? You really could make the cut, you know. The likes of Jimmy Buffett and Sasha Shulgin (a chemist who had a license to invent new designer psychedelics, which escaped his lab, of course, and ferally have turned on millions, moi included) are members. Writing about his times with "the owlers," Shulgin indicated that he was their go-to guy for certain exotic "condiments." A side note about Bohemian Grove: Nixon was invited to one encampment as a guest and later called it "the gayest thing I ever attended."
This is a fun read all the way through. The plotting is complex and grabs the reader often by the lapels; the character development turns these people real. I grew to like them, like you would your own pals. The horrible kid, Lone, Moo Shoes, uncle Ho, the cheese, Sal (a douche bag), and of course our protagonist good guy bartender, Sammy. I'm not sure about his last name, as it kept changing throughout the read.
One of Moore's best. Dude. You better already be tapping that keyboard on the next one, chop chop! Don't leave us jonesing for the next novel while you kick back. Maybe stay away from Hawaii. People here really do get Polynesian paralysis and are left on Hawaiian time. Oh, and thanks for the tour of San Fran. I only got the one real life tour by a friend who lives there.
Sammy lives in a flophouse where his only friend is a loud mouthed latch key kid. The Kid is a great character in that he can say any foul mouthed thing the author thinks up which might be too much even for mobbed up bar owners or crooked cops in1947 speak. Both Sammy and Stilton are looking for ways to make a quick buck and Sammy's is to buy the snake. Stilton is engaged by a clueless 5 star general to go to a secret retreat at a camp in the woods where rich and richer men go once a year to engage in weird rituals, hoping she and her friends will be his ticket to membership.
Then, of course, there is the spaceship/weather balloon crash in Roswell. This reviewer may have lost the thread of a passenger from the spaceship ended up in an ice machine at the woodsy camp (possibly due to the third glass of wine). Anyway, malignant forces are determined to locate the alien being (aka The Moonman).
In short, it appears the author took gangsters, generals, crooked cops, bumbling g-men, a wise-cracking hot babe, a semi-crippled bartender, a loud mouthed kid, a giant black guy who believes he's in the secret service and his mother, threw them into a blender with some tequila and when they jumped out fully formed, he wrote about them. It's great.
Top reviews from other countries
Me he reído a carcajadas con algunas situaciones y diálogos, en especial a partir de la segunda parte de la historia, donde el Noir empieza a mezclarse con una situación propia del área 54, en ese estilo tan habitual de Christopher Moore y que tanto nos gusta a sus lectores.
Ojalá estuviese traducida al español, porque se la recomendaría a mucha gente.
En inglés sigue siendo muy divertida, aunque seguro que alguna referencia o broma me he perdido, porque a menudo los personajes hablan con giros propios de las novelas y películas de cine negro de los años 40. Aún así, la recomiendo a cualquiera a quien le guste este escritor y tenga un nivel medio-alto de lectura en inglés.
Das Buch hat alles, was eine Geschichte haben muss, damit sie ihrem Titel Noir gerecht wird. Düstere Straßen, gefährliche Frauen, einen verwegenen Helden und viel Action. Dennoch... So ganz schwarz ist das Buch nicht. Im Gegenteil. So sehr habe ich mich selten bei einem Buch amüsiert. Der schräge Humor mag nicht jedermanns Sache sein, aber in dem Punkt weiß man, auf was man sich einlässt, wenn man Moores Bücher kennt.
Neben den abstrusen Situationen sind aber auch die Charaktere liebenswürdig durchgeknallt. Jede Nebenfigur wird für sich zu einem Highlight.
Die Geschichte selbst spielt 1947 in San Francisco. Nachkriegszeit, Segregation und Ufo-Sichtungen über Roswell... Es wird kaum einer anzweifeln können, dass ein Christopher Moore zu diesem Ort und dieser Zeit eine "vernünftige" Geschichte stricken kann. Aber für mich lebte das Buch viel mehr von der Sprache und den Figuren.







