Bøker av Phil Swann

Lights, camera, Trip! Los Angeles, 1966. Hot off the heels of his last adventure in Mekong Delta Blues, Trip Callaway, the young, wise-cracking musician with dreams as big as The Golden State itself, takes a break from his steady gig on the Vegas Strip to do some easy undercover work in Hollywood for his secret agency benefactors. It's Hollywood; how dangerous could it be? But as Trip quickly discovers, The Dream Factory can also be a nightmare. A ruthless gangster, a dubious district attorney, a cantankerous tango band, and a sexy singer from Argentina who elevates the word diva to a whole new level, force Trip into a malaise of love, lies, revenge, and a twenty-five-year-old family secret that will change his life forever. For Trip Callaway, Tinsel Town Tango is a dance where one misstep could prove fatal.

A ruthless Chinese crime syndicate has infiltrated Las Vegas. Heroin is on the rise in Sin City. So is murder. Sounds like a job for a trumpet player. 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 thirteen-year-old step-son of a notorious crime boss, he quickly realizes he's agreed to more than he bargained for. Killers, prostitutes, heroin addicts and, of course, a beautiful woman, lead Trip into a deadly game of cat and mouse where he's not sure if he's the cat or the mouse. And, if that's not bad enough, the U.S. government has another surprise for him. From a ghost town in the Nevada desert, to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., to the jungles of Vietnam, Trip Callaway must stay alive, sort it all out, and keep that famous Callaway cool in the process.

Trip takes a vacation!Miami Beach, 1966. Hot off the heels of his last adventure in Tinseltown Tango, Trip Callaway, the young, wise-cracking musician with dreams as big as the Atlantic Ocean, is forced to take a break from his steady gig on the Vegas Strip to soak up some rays and mojitos in the Sunshine State courtesy of Uncle Sam. The only caveat? Trip must lay low and stay out of trouble. Yeah, right.From the glitz and glam of the world famous Fontainebleau Hotel, to a notorious gambling ship anchored off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, to the launch pads of Cape Canaveral, Trip Callaway wades neck-deep into Cuban gangsters, salsa music, and a murder mystery with global consequences. A crime where whodunnit might not be nearly as important as why?

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. Could these events be linked to a few faded scribbles of music his mentor passed on to him years earlier?Two centuries after a chance meeting between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Benjamin Franklin, a washed-up piano player uncovers what might be the most explosive musical discovery ever made. But if David can't put all the pieces together, he could end up like Mozart: a dead musical genius.

A blonde bombshell floats face down in a swimming pool. Is it a love affair gone wrong? Or is something far more sinister afoot? 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.Was it the mob? The boyfriend? The stripper? Or could the truth lie at a mysterious top secret location hidden deep in the Nevada desert nobody wants to talk about? All Trip knows for sure is, if he doesn't figure it all out fast, he could be next on the killer's hit parade.

Title page erroniously states music & lyrics by Neil Simon; cover and other sources state book & lyrics by Neil Simon.