{"id":3597,"date":"2025-07-18T15:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3597"},"modified":"2025-07-18T15:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:20:16","slug":"book-review-extraterrestrial-noir-by-rich-leder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3597","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Extraterrestrial Noir by Rich Leder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Extraterrestrial Noir<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Rich Leder<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Science Fiction \/ Thriller<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798992682908<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 568 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Chelsey Tucker<\/em><\/p>\n

An alien drops into secret-plagued suburbia in this tale of hilarious insanity and grotesque revenge.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Maggie Devine is lying on the front lawn with her family, hoping to catch sight of meteors. Mindlessly, or perhaps intentionally, she beams out an SOS into the universe. Her marriage has been falling apart for years, and now they are financially strapped.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, a silver boot-sized box comes shooting down from space and through the roof of the Devine\u2019s white Colonial in Paramus, New Jersey. Secrets of the universe and secrets of suburbia turn out to share a lot in common.<\/p>\n

The alien boot box ends up transforming into the late noir film star Alan Ladd, claiming he has come to answer Maggie\u2019s SOS and assist their family. Connie, Maggie\u2019s husband, owes a quarter of a million dollars to their neighbor, Bill, who gives Connie the weekend to settle up.<\/p>\n

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Bill is the mobster type who is in bed with international drug dealers, and to make matters worse, another neighbor\u2019s daughter, Teresa, has it out for Connie\u2019s daughter. Teresa is \u201cThe gruesome girl next door. Psycho killer.\u201d<\/strong> All of their suburban secrets are revealed by this Alan Ladd lookalike alien who \u201chad time\u201d<\/strong> to learn about everything ever written in human history and then some, including personal information and every piece of entertainment ever created.<\/p>\n

With the Devine family objectively screwed and out of options, they decide to trust the alien even though \u201cthe reason he\u2019s here is a known unknown\u2014we know we don\u2019t know why he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/strong> The mysterious extraterrestrial is undoubtedly a good sign, a light to guide their way. Only thing is: we never know when the alien is telling the truth. After the first act of criminality\u2014when a non-violent diamond heist leads to murder\u2014there is no slowing down, just an avalanche of sabotage, gunfights, arms dealing, and more. All the chaos one could hope for in a comic thriller.<\/p>\n

The language in Extraterrestrial Noir<\/em> is fun, quirky, dark, and sophisticated. Very much like the noir films from the 1940s would feel. There is even usage of alliteration which plays into the tempo of a scene just as much as it ratchets up the humor. Leder makes action-packed scenes feel like musical compositions.<\/p>\n

Repetition is used to great effect too. Characters often have their own taglines involving different themes. Connie, for example, is always thinking about where he is in life, and it allows for some sharp insight into his character, like: \u201cThe wrong side of the line is where I am in my life.\u201d<\/strong> And while he\u2019s saying that, his wife mentions the different ways the suburbs can kill you, one being how \u201cthe suburbs can kill you with exhaustion.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Extraterrestrial Noir<\/em> is a wild ride. Sci-fi & close encounter fans will love the hilarious and horrifying nature of this story.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Chelsey Tucker\u2019s book review of Extraterrestrial Noir <\/em>by Rich Leder! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Extraterrestrial Noir by Rich Leder<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extraterrestrial Noir by Rich Leder Genre: Science Fiction \/ Thriller ISBN: 9798992682908 Print Length: 568 pages Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Chelsey Tucker An alien drops into secret-plagued suburbia in this tale of hilarious insanity and grotesque revenge. Maggie Devine is lying on the front lawn with her family, hoping to catch sight of meteors. Mindlessly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}