Showing results by author "Phil Swann" in All Categories

Las Vegas, 1965. Hot off the heels of his last adventure in Cold War Copa, Trip Callaway, the young, wise-cracking musician with dreams as big as the Hoover Dam, has reluctantly agreed to go undercover and do some light spying for the government - light spying, as in report on who’s hobnobbing with whom in the casinos along The Strip. But when Trip is asked to pose as a trumpet teacher to the 13-year-old step-son of a notorious crime boss, he quickly realizes he’s agreed to more than he bargained for.

David Webber is a man of prodigious musical talent - and prodigious alcohol consumption - who makes a meager living playing piano in a hotel bar. He's sure he's hit rock bottom. David doesn't realize, however, his boring, depressing life is about to get complicated - and dangerous. When David's college mentor is murdered and his music agent disappears, he becomes the prime suspect. David is hurled into a treacherous world of international assassins, underground crime, and shadowy figures in the US government.

Cold War Copa is the first book in The Sideman Mysteries, a pulp fiction tale of Sin City during its Golden Age from author, playwright, and composer Phil Swann. Las Vegas in 1965: Gangsters, showgirls, the Rat Pack, cool is king, and everything swings. Especially Trip Callaway, a young, wise-cracking trumpet player working the Sands. But when people around him start getting knocked off, Trip is thrust into a dangerous maze of secrets, lies, murder, and Cold War intrigue, where nothing is how it seems and no one is who they say they are.