This is a follow-up title to Moore's Noir but only because some of the characters recur and there are copious references to prior events but these, in no way, preclude the innocent reader from total enjoyment of this particular adventure.  And anything you really need to know is thoughtfully provided by the author.

San Francisco circa 1947.  Sammy "Two Toes" and his ragtag bunch of working mugs (the author's description, not mine) are currently working on a couple of hustles.  They're trying to open a driving school (with no car and no qualified instructors, but that's just details), shanghai an abusive Swedish stevedore (who's not a decent sort to Miss Doris who slings meatloaf in their favorite diner), and figure out a way to get a passel of cross-dressers into the local brothel and a passel of hookers out of the brothel, dressed as elves, all without alerting the local vice squad as to the eventual destination of the hookers.  But while all that tends to keep Sammy hopping, it's nothing compared to the troubles of his friend Moo Shoes.  Moo Shoes' Uncle Ho stole an ancient dragon statue from a Tong when he was younger and apparently hid it in the mountains outside the city.  The Tong want it back but the last time Uncle Ho had the dragon, it caused the great earthquake of 1906.  Moo Shoes enlists Sammy to help get the Tong off his uncle's back but it may mean they have to actually find the dragon and hope it doesn't destroy San Francisco again.

There's plenty of other shenanigans going on with Sammy's girlfriend who is an expert welder and hard at work on a secret project that somehow has something to do with the little critter dubbed Moonman (from Noir) that ends up connected to the dragon but in a way that boggles the mind.  Oh, and that the local drag queens and kings are being murdered and Sammy has been hired by a club owner to find the killer; something the local police are most definitely not doing.  And if you think you'd have to stand on your head to figure out how all this is connected, you'd not be totally wrong.

I read Moore for the cockeyed, roller-coaster type writing for which he is known.  It's usually hysterical as much for the plot as the dialogue.  In this case, he adopts the vernacular of the 1940s so that the oft-mentioned shagging present in other tomes translates to the razzmatazz.  And there's plenty of it; although not as much as Sammy would prefer. ~~  Catherine Book

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