Cover art for the book Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

I just finished reading the new book by Thomas Pynchon titled Shadow Ticket. The novel tells us there’s a war on or a war coming picking up where the last one let off. Those peace talks in Versailles weren’t as much about peace as they were about setting up the competition for the next round. There’s a tough guy who calls himself Hicks operating out of a private investigation company office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with headquarters in New York City, Manhattan. Like most of the US PI shops this one got its start busting unions and union organizers heads for corporate America in the years of the robber barons and thereafter. The company shortens its registered name to U-Ops and the Milwaukee chief’s name is Boynt. Hicks knows the town Chicago but not like he knows Milwaukee with its bratwurst, beer and what the pulp detective writers call cheap dames. Cheap in this realm has little to do with character or job descriptions and much of the time it means something like down to earth, not fancy and with minimal bullshit, sometimes less bullshit than men. You know, straightforward as a fist in the gut or a cop not on the take. The time is the early 1930s, the fascists are making a name for themselves in Milwaukee, Washington, Italy, Germany and most of Europe. They’re also making a mess of the world like fascists tend to do. There’s a girl named Daphne who’s running away from her rich daddy but not his money and another young woman named April who sings in local clubs, dives and a theater or two. Both have a connection and occasional thing with Hicks, who........

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