Shadow Ticket

A private eye is catapulted on to a continent-hopping journey that proves difficult to escape 'A masterpiece... A vintage tale of adventure' Daily Telegraph 'Swing bands, spies and surreal danger... A wild ride' i Paper 'Brilliant fun... Rollicking' Washington Post Milwaukee, 1932. Private eye Hicks McTaggart gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who's taken a mind to go wandering. By the time Hicks catches up with her in Hungary he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them. Surrounded by history he can't see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it's the dawn of the Big Band Era and he's a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee, and the normal world, is another question. 'Late Pynchon at his finest' Los Angeles Times 'So alive, so pleasurable' Megan Nolan 'Grabs you by the collar' New York Times

Thomas Pynchon is the author of V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Slow Learner (a collection of short stories), Vineland, Mason & Dixon, Against the Day, Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge. He received the National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow in 1974.