Shadow Ticket

Paperback Published on: 15/10/2026
Price: £10.99
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Published 15/10/2026
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Coming soon
Published 15/10/2026
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Bookseller Reviews

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Shadow Ticket
Thomas Pynchon returns to show us he’s still got it!
Thomas Pynchon’s new novel is an 1930s noir following a private eye chasing a cheese heiress across prewar europe. The opening chapters lay out the atmos... READ MORE
Harry at Liverpool One
Shadow Ticket
Punchy Pynchon
What starts as a fairly standard tale of a private eye with a taste for getting mixed up with the girlfriends of the mafioso, soon develops into a blend of... READ MORE
Amanda, Redhill
Shadow Ticket
Stylistically Gripping
Begins as a classic 30's crime noir dripping in prohibition-era Americana, before morphing into some kind of quasi-paranormal Eastern European espionage my... READ MORE
Richard, Huddersfield
Shadow Ticket
"Until one night, too late, you wake up into an understanding of what you should have been doing with your life all along."
I often have the sense that I’m not understanding things with Pynchon, stuff’s going over my head. This is fairly par for the course with him. It’s not o... READ MORE
Michael
Shadow Ticket
An exhilarating and literary crime noir
Pynchon’s newest (and potentially final) novel is a hilarious noir romp that touches on themes and settings that have followed him through his career. Equa... READ MORE
Connor Smyth

Synopsis

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

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Vintage Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781529972030
  • Number of pages: 352
  • Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 35 mm
  • Weight: 500g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews