Hicks McTaggart is a private detective working for Unamalgamated Ops detective agency in Milwaukee. The year is 1932 so the great depression is still casting its shadows over America. Hicks is a very tough man, and a skillful dancer, and he has good connection with a wide assortment of Milwaukeean individuals. He is given the task to locate the whereabouts of Daphne Airmont, daughter and heiress of the wealthy Bruno Airmont (the Al Capone of Cheese). Hicks only accepts the assignment due to an earlier encounter where he helped Daphne escape a mad therapist using a motorboat. One thing leads to another and Hicks finds himself drugged and dumped onboard a boat heading for Europe, on which he meets a wider assortment of individuals. He ends up touring around Hungary and neighbouring countries, still searching for Daphne, accepting uncommon jobs and interacting with the widest assortment of individuals, including Zdeněk who claims to be a Czechoslovakian golem.
I was very surprised that Thomas Pynchon had written a new book published in 2025. He was 88 at the time of publishing. Shadow Ticket is in many ways similar to his other works. The story is complex, the tone is paranoid and there are many absurd moments. This time there is also a clearer feeling than ever that the world as a rational place is about to end. The book is a good read, but I would recommend to make notes to keep track of the myriad of people and organisations described in it. It feels also a bit sad that after Pynchon has spent 60 years of describing a world soaked in absurd conspiracy theories, the real world is starting to look the same.