Razzmatazz A novel

San Francisco in the late 1940s. A killer is on the loose, and nightclub owner Jimmy Vasco worries she's going to be the next victim, prompting her to ask bartender Sammy Tiffin (last seen in the hilarious Noir, 2018), to track down the killer. Meanwhile, Sammy agrees to help a friend find a priceless Chinese relic. Also meanwhile, Sammy's girlfriend, Stilton, otherwise known (but never to her face) as the Cheese, has been carrying out some sort of top-secret construction project that might have sparked the interest of certain government agents. Moore, the author of many genre-blending comic romps--Shakespeare for Squirrels (2020) and Bite Me (2010) among them--seems able to draw on an inexhaustible supply of eccentric stories and characters, along with a mountainous stockpile of clever phrases, hilarious wordplays, and laugh-out-loud jokes. There is literally a laugh on every page of this book (several, on some pages), and, with its fast-paced, deliberately helter-skelter storyline, it sinks its hooks deeply and never lets go. Familiarity with Noir is certainly not required, but it does add another layer of fun.

In this humorous romp, bestseller Moore returns to the 1947 San Francisco setting of Noir, where bartender and amateur problem-solver Sammy Tiffin is faced with several requests for assistance. Jimmy Vasco, proprietress of a lesbian bar, asks Sammy to find the killer targeting her community; Eddie Shu wants Sammy to recover a dragon statue for his Uncle Ho; and Mabel, "the preeminent nookie bookie in Fog City," needs help smuggling her girls out of town to a Christmas party. Meanwhile, Sammy's squeeze, Tilly Stilton, uses her considerable welding skills on a mystery project at the telepathic behest of Scooter, the "moonman" from the previous volume. And in flashbacks to 1906, a younger Ho contends with a very real and terrifying dragon. Moore, entirely in his element and with tongue firmly in cheek, has his characters speak in gumshoe-esque vernacular, while warning in an author's note that "the language and attitudes portrayed herein regarding race, culture, and gender are contemporary to that time and, sadly, all too real." Indeed, punctuating all the spoofy amateur sleuthing are more serious depictions of the maltreatment of the Chinese and LGBTQ communities, adding some necessary gravitas. Moore's fans and those who like their noir with a side of slapstick and the supernatural will enjoy. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Company. (May)