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 the Great Depression going full blast repeal of Prohibition just around the
corner Al Capone in the federal pen the private investigation business shifting from
labour-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart a onetime strikebreaker
turned private eye thinks he's found job security until he 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. Before he knows it he's been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner
ending up eventually in Hungary where there's no shoreline a language from some other planet
and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement - and of course no sign of the runaway
heiress he's supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself
also entangled with Nazis Soviet agents British counterspies swing musicians practitioners
of the paranormal outlaw motorcyclists and the troubles that come with each of them none of
which Hicks is qualified forget about being paid to deal with. Surrounded by history he has
no grasp on and 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 as it happens he's a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be
enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world
which may no longer exist 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 *A Guardian
Financial Times and Daily Telegraph Book of the Year* * Daily Mail Notable Book of 2025 and i
paper Best Crime and Thriller Book of the Year*
