Overview

• The novel is Pynchon's ninth and first in 12 years, with publication set for early October by Penguin Press.
• Set in early 1930s Milwaukee before shifting to Europe, it follows PI Hicks McTaggart on a case involving missing heiress Daphne Airmont and her cheese‑baron father.
• Reviews highlight a lean, hard‑boiled frame animated by Pynchon's conspiratorial humor and brisk prose, noting an emotionally weighty close without neat answers.
• Critics point to surreal turns including a Lake Michigan Austro‑Hungarian submarine, Hungarian “apportists” who make objects vanish or appear, and the International Cheese Syndicate.
• Several outlets position the book as the capstone to Pynchon's informal chronicle of the 20th century, while the blog Biblioklept posted the opening paragraphs to stoke early interest.