You are Philip M. Noir, Private Investigator. A mysterious young widow hires you to find her husband's killer...but has he really been killed? Then your client is killed and her body disappears...but was she really your client? Your search for clues takes you through all the layers of the city, from classy lounges to lowlife dives, from jazz bars to swimming pools, from yachts to the morgue. 'The Case of the Vanishing Black Widow' unfolds over five days above ground and three or four in smugglers' tunnels, through flashback and anecdote, and expands time into something much larger. You don't always get the joke, though most people think what's happening to you is pretty funny. Taking the classic genre of the noir detective story and turning it inside out, Coover is at the top of his form. "Noir" is a true page-turner - wry, absurd, and desolate.