Noir

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.)