Femme Noir by Clara Nipper

Femme Noir
by Clara Nipper
Pages: 252
Date: September 1 2009 (orig: November 3 2007)
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (Originally Alpha World Press)
Series: Nora Delaney (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: May 6 to 10 2016

This book here is my second book by this author.

This is a book about a hugely successful college basketball coach (Mooreland University Wildcats) who, and this is important to the story, is a bald black butch. Apparently powerfully built, physically fit, smokes like smoking will be outlawed tomorrow and she wants to get as much as she can beforehand, and drinks like there’s no tomorrow. Also chases every woman who is appropriately femme enough.

Characters
Nora Delaney is the 35 year old basketball coach mentioned above. Tall, powerful, orally fixated (cigarette, leaking pen, finger, she needs to suck on things) and currently living in Los Angeles as a basketball coach. A hugely successful basketball coach. The fact that she is a hugely successful basketball coach is the least believable part of this book – she has no impulse control, put a drink in her hand and she’ll drink it (no matter who puts it into her hand, or what is in the drink), put a woman in front of her, and she’ll fuck her (even if she doesn’t like the woman; even if she’d prefer to leave and hump a different woman), but most importantly, for a big strong butchy basketball coach, she sure is wimpy. In that, she has no ability to deal with people with strong personalities, who do not take no from her, who literally leap onto her back. This? This is a hugely successful basketball coach? Someone unable to control the situation or the personalities around her? A basketball coach, sure, but hugely successful?

Max Abbott is a woman who, despite the book description, is barely in this book as a character. She’s apparently quite voluptuous, has red hair, and is very pale in coloration. She is lusted after and stalked by Nora. Oh, and Max, for all I know, is as sex-crazed as the description describes, but she sure isn’t in this book. Everyone else is, but not her.

Michelle McKerr is Nora’s ex. And is the reason why Nora is in Tulsa, because Michelle had apparently been living there before she died . . . in L.A.

Darcy Tate is Nora’s contact in Tulsa. She’s hooked up with Ava-Suzanne Morgan-Frazier (girlfriend) and Jhoaeneyie Crosswaithe (friend). Ava is a musically inclined artist. Jhoaeneyie works in a gas station. Though tells everyone that she’s a shrink.

Sloane Weatherly is one of the people who knew Michelle and one of the people Nora talks with. She is also one of the few black people in Tulsa (maybe the only one she actually speaks with).

Jack Irving is a gay man Nora meets in the first bar she enters in Tulsa.

Amber is Michelle’s local ex. And a woman who enjoys disrobing and not taking no for an answer.

Lila and Reese are a couple. Kind of. Lila sings and has a restaurant. Reese is an artist who beds all the femmes in town. Nora doesn’t like either, though spends time with them anyway. Because, what the fuck, why not, right?

Tonya is Nora’s best friend in L.A. And, other than a few scenes in the beginning of the book, not really in this book.

Plot
Pussy hound Nora Delaney gets a call from her crazy ex-Michelle. Michelle wants her to ‘come here’ immediately. To help her. Course Nora thinks that Michelle is in Tulsa, and since Nora is in LA going to her immediately is kind of out of the question. Plus, Michelle is her crazy ex, not her crazy current girlfriend. Still, she sits up that night, wondering if Michelle really is going to come over (which she threatened after Nora refused to go to her) before slumping over asleep.

In the morning Nora heads back to the woman she had fucked the day before, for some nice breakfast. Upon returning to her apartment she finds that it has been trashed. Eventually learns that Michelle had been murdered, and immediately heads to Tulsa. Mostly so that she could be in the area Michelle had been in, definitely not to do anything grand like investigate her death.

Upon arrival in Tulsa, Nora immediately heads to a bar, and meets three of the oddest ducks in the world. Darcy, Ava-Suzanne, and Jhoaeneyie. Nora instantly takes a dislike to them, but sticks close to them like glue. Instead of, you know, fleeing in the opposite direction. Though she does make a few attempts, unsuccessful, to flee. Nora also meets Sloan, Max, and Jack in this bar.

Nora hangs out with Darcy and her gang, despite disliking all of them, and despite her desire to spend time stalking Max (which she has a tendency to do, stand outside her wide open window gazing up at her while thinking about how she wouldn’t allow her to do stuff (like have uncurtained windows) – that’s a theme for Nora, how she wishes to control others). Also, once she hears of it, she investigates the race riot that took place in Tulsa in 1921. And attends Michelle’s funeral. At no time, though, does she investigate Michelle’s murder (though people would occasionally slip information into her ear for no inherent reason; well, technically, she does occasionally ask people questions about Michelle, but about Michelle, not necessarily about her murder).

Overall
The constant daydreams by Nora about fucking people were annoying. Visiting Tulsa, and Nora’s reactions to the place were interesting. There are a lot of ‘characters’ in this book, and while I wouldn’t particularly want anything to do with any of them in real life, they were interesting to read about.

The book was more coherent than the other book I’d read by this author. It was easier to ‘take’ how poor the mystery part of the book was this time around, since the prior book I’d read involved many murders, and a police officer who seemed more determined to not work, than to solve crime. While this one involved a woman grieving the death of an ex, and one who actually noted, at least once, that she wasn’t investigating the death. So the lack of real investigation was actually expected. Still this wasn’t a mystery, so I’ve removed the book from that shelf.

To a certain extent, the greatest weakness in this book is the character of Nora. Specifically the part where she meets three people who she kind of likes in Tulsa, but spends the majority of her time with people she kind of despises and dislikes. Mostly by her own choice.

The ‘mystery’ of Michelle’s death is both logical and kind of stupid. But, meh. The book wasn’t about the mystery. But about the journey. Or something. Also, Nora’s quite insane.

May 10 2016