Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

2006 Random House Trade Paperback Edition

Copyright © 2005 by Rupert Holmes

Published in the United States by Random House Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holmes, Rupert.
Swing: a mystery / by Rupert Holmes.
p. cm.
1. Golden Gate International Exposition (1939–1940) : San
Francisco, Calif.)—Fiction. 2. San Francisco (Calif.)—Fiction.
3. Women composers—Fiction. 4. Jazz musicians—Fiction.
I. Title.

eISBN: 978-0-307-43189-9

v3.0_r1

Dedication

For Wendy Isobel Holmes (1976 – 1986)

Praise

Praise for Swing

“[A] subtle and surprising portrait of a world many of us never knew [with a] tricky and involving plot . . . But it’s the people, living and dead, who stay in the memory after the last page has been turned, the last letter-perfect description of a vanished world has touched a chord, the last note of swing music has been played.” —Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune

“Smart and impressively elaborate . . . a sophisticated foray into musical mystery-plotting, [Swing flashes] back to the big-band era in surprising, imaginative ways. Mr. Holmes can turn a phrase . . . as handily as he can encrypt clues into a tune.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Saturated in the atmosphere of noir and swing, the story moves jauntily, its set pieces staged with theatrical flair and its snappy dialogue recalling Ben Hecht’s [with] Holmes’s stylish sense of ambience and lightness of touch.” —The New Yorker

“Rupert Holmes’s clever period mystery . . . re-creates a moment when people still lived in a state of innocence, sipping sodas in Rexall’s, dancing to the big bands at the Claremont, strolling the Gayway on Treasure Island. . . . Holmes gathers them all together, the bitter and the sweet, and makes the kind of music you want to hear.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“The vastly-talented Tony-, Emmy-, and Edgar-winning Holmes . . . has a sharp eye and a keen ear, [as well as] the rare ability to describe a person with a single line that brands the character into the brain. I urge you to swing by your local bookseller and bring a copy home.” —Otto Penzler, The New York Sun