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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
Christopher Moore was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1957. He studied at Ohio State University and Brooks Institute of Photography. Before becoming a full-time author, he worked as a roofer, a grocery clerk, a hotel night auditor, an insurance broker, a waiter, a photographer, and a DJ. His first book, Practical Demonkeeping, was published in 1992. His other works include Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Nun, Lamb, A Dirty Job, You Suck, Fool, Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art, and Secondhand Souls. In 2014 his title, The Serpent of Venice, made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Moore (Secondhand Souls) spoofs hard-boiled detective fiction in this irreverent send-up set in 1947 San Francisco. One evening, a dame named Stilton, who has "the kind of legs that kept her butt from resting on her shoes," walks into Sal's Saloon, where she meets bartender Sammy "Two-Toes" Tiffin. Sammy soon falls madly in love with Stilton, and then she disappears. Meanwhile, Sal Gabelli, the saloon's proprietor, orders Sammy to provide a bevy of broads for an Air Force general in command of a base in Roswell, N.Mex., who needs the women for an event at the Bohemian Club camp in redwood country. Sammy's subsequent discovery of Sal's snake-bitten corpse in the stock room and the arrival of men in black suits wearing sunglasses complicate matters. From there, things just get stranger in this work that puts an amusing spin on the noir subgenre. An author's note gives fair warning of the characters' era-appropriate language and attitudes, which may be disturbing to some readers. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Co. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A regular joe stirs up a whole pot of trouble when he meets a damsel in distress.Renowned satirist Moore (Secondhand Souls, 2015, etc.) offers up a soft-boiled take on the hard-boiled tradition personified by the likes of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler in this messy, comic mystery that often goes off the rails. The book does offer a fascinating setting in San Francisco circa 1947, a throwback to a city the author clearly knows and loves. Our palooka of a protagonist is Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin, a partially lame grifter who tends bar at Sal's Saloon between various schemes. Sammy gets more than he bargained for when a spectacular blonde "tasty bit of trouble" named Stilton wanders into his joint. Before you know it, Sammy has the hots for "the Cheese," a jones that brings him all manner of trouble. The book employs no end of snappy dialogue straight out of a Jimmy Cagney movie, but the device can't save it from its meandering, distracted plot. In addition to the Cheese, we meet General Remy, a conspiring bureaucrat on leave from Roswell Army Air Field; "The Kid," a profane rug rat Sammy employs from time to time; Eddie Moo Shoes, Sammy's entree into Chinatown's underworld; Lone Jones, a good-natured boxer who insists he's not black; a dirty cop named Pookie O'Hara; and an assorted mix of gangsters, cabbies, drag queens, and other denizens of San Francisco. Moore's introduction of an interrupting, semiomniscient second narrator between Sammy's first-person tale can be jarring, even if it is explained late in the book. The novel finally coalesces in its back half as Sammy invades a shady cabal called the Bohemian Club to rescue the Cheese, pretty much from herself, and they both get a surprise when they run across General Remy's secret, all while being chased by mysterious "men in black." What results is a kindred spirit to Richard Brautigan's Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942 (1977).A frantically comic tale of guys and dolls that shoots and just misses. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* San Francisco, 1947. Bartender Sammy Tiffin falls head-over-heels in love with a beautiful girl named Stilton (like, she explains, the cheese). Sammy's boss, the revolting Sal Gabelli, is working on a special project for an Air Force muckety-muck that involves Sammy rounding up wholesome girls and hooking them up with members of the powerful Bohemian Club. Through no fault of Sammy's, Stilton or, as Sammy affectionately calls her, the Cheese winds up in serious danger, and Sammy is prepared to wreak whatever havoc is necessary to save her. That's the bare-bones story of Moore's weird and oddly hilarious new novel, which also features sunglasses-wearing government agents, a rogue black mamba snake, a helpful madam, and a mysterious object that fell out of the sky in a place called Roswell. This isn't just a spoof of the kind of noir that Thompson, Cain, and Goodis were writing in the 1940s and '50s; hiding behind those trappings is 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. The scene in the diner, where the Cheese and her pal call out food orders, is by itself funny enough to have you snorting in public. So beware: you probably won't get through this one without making a fool of yourself.--Pitt, David Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
"San Francisco, 1947. A dame walks into a bar.." When bartender Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin first meets Stilton (like the cheese), a good-looking blonde with an attitude, he knows he's a goner. What he doesn't know is that his life is about to be completely turned upside down. Add an air force general from a nowhere base in Roswell, NM, who needs a favor, a crooked cop, a secret society, a missing black mamba snake, and two "tax men" in black suits and sunglasses, and Sammy more than has his hands full. When Stilton mysteriously vanishes, Sammy will have to put all of his considerable connections and street smarts to use if he wants to find her, figure out how the pieces of this seemingly incongruous puzzle fit together, and save the day. VERDICT Raymond Chandler meets the SyFy channel in Moore's latest humorous adventure. 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. [See Prepub Alert, 10/2/17.]-Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.