<b<Already a hit in France, a hard-boiled detective novel from the man T.C. Boyle calls “our foremost verbal wizard”</b><br><br> With impeccable skill, Robert Coover, one of AmericaÂ's pioneering postmodernists, has turned the classic detective story inside-out. Here Coover is at the top of his form; and Noir is a true page-turner—wry, absurd, and desolate.<br><br> You are Philip M. Noir, Private Investigator. A mysterious young widow hires you to find her husbandÂ's killer—if he was killed. Then your client is killed and her body disappears—if she was your client. Your search for clues takes you through all levels of the city, from classy lounges to lowlife dives, from jazz bars to a rich sex kittenÂ's bedroom, from yachts to the morgue. “The Case of the Vanishing Black Widow” unfolds over five days aboveground and three or four in smugglersÂ' tunnels, though flashback and anecdote, and expands time into something much larger. You donÂ't always get the joke, though most people think whatÂ's happening is pretty funny.<br><br <b>Praise for the work of Robert Coover</b><br> “As his dazzling career continues to demonstrate, Mr. Coover is a one-man Big Bang of exploding creative force.” —<i>The New York Times</i><br><br> “At age 75, Coover is still a brilliant mythmaker, a potty-mouthed Svengali, and an evil technician of metaphors. He is among our languageÂ's most important inventors.” —Ben Marcus