Two-time Edgar Award winner Rupert Holmes–author of the critically acclaimed Where the Truth Lies and creator of the Tony Award—winning musical whodunit The Mystery of Edwin Drood –now fuses gripping suspense and evocative music in an innovative novel of intrigue set in 1940, during the very heart of the Big Band era. Swing is a multimedia mystery that spills off the printed page and into the musical tracks of the enclosed CD. Jazz saxophonist and arranger Ray Sherwood, touring with the Jack Donovan Orchestra, is haunted by personal tragedy. But when a beautiful and talented Berkeley student named Gail Prentice seeks his help in orchestrating a highly original composition called Swing Around the Sun, which is slated to premiere at the Golden Gate Exposition on the newly created Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, Ray finds himself powerfully drawn to the beguiling coed. Within moments of first setting eyes on her, Ray also witnesses a horrifying sight: a young woman plunging to her death from the island’s emblematic Tower of the Sun. As the captivated Ray learns more about Gail and her unusual family, he finds himself trapped in a tightening coil of spiraling secrets– some personally devastating, all dangerous and deadly– in which from moment to moment nothing is certain, including Gail’s intentions toward him and her connection to the dead woman who made such a grisly impact upon the stunning island. As events speed toward a shocking climax, Ray must use all his physical daring and improvisational skills to unlock an ominous puzzle whose sinister implications stretch far beyond anything he could imagine. Swing is a brilliant historical thriller–with an extra twist that extends beyond its pages. Accompanying the novel is a CD of original songs and music that feature prominently in the story, within which the reader may find additional clues to the mysteries of Swing . This second mystery novel by a noted songwriter and playwright is set in 1940, at the height of the big-band era, and its protagonist is a talented but troubled saxophonist beginning an engagement at a swank hotel. Approached by a fetching music student to arrange her prize-winning composition, he quickly finds himself in a complicated world of murder and espionage, as America prepares for war. Holmes's narrative is saturated in the atmosphere of noir and swing, and he has even recorded an accompanying CD of jazzy numbers containing musical clues. The story moves jauntily, its set pieces staged with theatrical flair and its snappy dialogue recalling Ben Hecht's. The plot ultimately seems a trifle creaky, but Holmes's stylish sense of ambience and his lightness of touch more than make up for it. Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker Holmes’s Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood , for which he wrote the book, lyrics, and score, won five Tony Awards. Strangely, no fuss was made that he was also the, um, genius behind the pop hit "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)." Since then, he’s tried his hand at fiction—and won two Edgars. He dedicates Swing to his young daughter, who died in 1986. Despite its lightweight veneer (supplemented with a CD of Big Band-style music, written and orchestrated by Holmes), the novel touches on themes of guilt, loss, and wartime tragedies. Critics found great beauty in the novel’s nostalgic evocation of 1940s Bay Area culture. The mystery itself is clever, if a little flat; clues that emerged through songs eluded some critics. Still, readers who appreciate a good period mystery "won’t regret taking Holmes’s latest novel for a Swing" ( Rocky Mountain News ). Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. Grammy winner ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) and author of 2003's Where the Truth Lies , Holmes returns with a thriller that lets him show off both his literary and musical talents. Ray Sherwood is a big-band arranger whose current gig lands him at the 1940 World's Fair, which is taking place on Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay. Commissioned to arrange an award-winning piano competition to be played in the Japanese Pavilion as a symbol of world peace, Sherwood starts to fall for the composer until her mother gives him shocking news about the girl's parentage. The plot gets thicker by the minute (it's 1940, don't forget, and there are Japanese involved), as Ray struggles to figure out who's scamming whom. That's never clear until an artificial denouement spells everything out, but the real attraction here is the big-band ambience and the fascinating background on Treasure Island. (The book comes with a CD featuring Holmes' compositions and including clues in the lyrics.) A bit hokey, all in all, but good fun (just like a day at the fair). Bill Ott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –Praise for Where the Truth Lies : “Every tightening of the suspense is beautifully rendered, polished to a sheen.” – Los Angeles Times Book Review “Delectable . . . a wonderfully witty