"The homemade bomb connects to the runaway cheese heiress, the cheese heiress to the federal agents, and the feds to the proNazi leagues at the bowling lanes outside town. Early-30s Milwaukee, in turn, is connected to powder-keg central Europe, where paramilitary groups have pitched camp on the Hungaro-Croatian border and guest speakers wax lyrical about our immense fascist future. Most likely it connects to the current moment as well, albeit wryly and slyly, with a nonchalant swing."
"Our Bogart-esque hero is Hicks McTaggart, a semi-professional dancer turned strikebreaker turned dogged, compromised private dick, toiling to hold his position against a surge of rascally clowns and unreliable sources. Hicks is on the trail of Daphne Airmont, the missing heiress, but something about the woman smells iffy, and it may not be the cheese. There are Nazi sympathisers in the halls of power and an Austro-Hungarian U-boat running guns across Lake Michigan."
Set in early-1930s Milwaukee, a lindy-hopping private detective pursues a missing cheese heiress whose disappearance links to a homemade bomb, federal agents and pro-Nazi leagues. The investigation exposes cross-connections between local ethnic communities, strikebreaking, and transatlantic gun-running from an Austro-Hungarian U-boat on Lake Michigan. The narrative blends dime-store whodunnit elements—red herrings, plot twists and hard-boiled dialogue—with broader concerns about conspiracy, chaos and the churn of American pop culture. A Bogart-esque hero named Hicks McTaggart navigates compromised institutions, unreliable sources and rascally antagonists while the past and present are implied to fold into one another.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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