Noir

The plot is comfortably predictable from the very beginning of the story, and would make great B-grade SciFi movie for a Friday night in, except that the kind of character development you need to fall in love with a book like this takes a backseat to sometimes overly clever observational narration.

Loved the local San Francisco period color. The afterword went into more detail on Moore's process of picking a year, doing quite a bit of detailed research, then spinning a yarn around fixed points like cafes and theaters and people who actually existed. It explains the lack of character development, because the process is more like spinning cotton candy filler around a central metal pin than following typical storytelling patterns. The end is in mind from the beginning, and the enjoyment is in how he tells the story.