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Plot and Character Notes

Version 1.00 – March 17, 2026

Chapter 1

In Prohibition era Milwaukee, Hicks McTaggart works at the Unamalgamated Ops (U-Ops) private detective agency. His boss Boynt Crosstown assigns Hicks to find Daphne Airmont the daughter of the Al Capone of Cheese, Bruno Airmont. Daphne, who has a personal history with Hicks has dumped her fiancé and ran away with a clarinet player. There is a commotion in the office and Skeet Wheeler, a young, illustrious, “tough monkey with a number of speeds to his gearbox” bursts in to tell Hicks that a petty criminal Stuffy Keegan just had his hooch wagon car bombed.

Chapter 2

Hicks and Skeet investigate the bombing of Stuffy Keegan’s REO Speedwagon. Hicks checks with Hoagie Hivnak a soda jerk with a sideline in medical alcohol about the whereabouts of Bruno.

Chapter 3

Hicks visits his dance partner April Randazzo at Arleen’s Orchid Lounge and then goes back to her messy abode: “Some call it clutter, April calls it nesting instinct.”  One night at the lounge as April sings, “Midnight in Milwaukee” Hicks runs into a cop, Lino ‘the Dump Truck’ Trapanese who tells Hicks he should visit his Uncle Lefty.

Chapter 4

Hicks joins his Aunt Peony and Uncle Lefty for a Surprise Casserole supper. (Backstory: Aunt Peony and Uncle Lefty raised Hicks after his mother ran off with an elephant trainer from Baraboo, Wisconsin [Barnum & Bailey’s winter quarters. ] Young Hicks began as a corporate thug in the days of labor unions and Bolsheviks. Hick almost kills a four-eyed wisenheimer with a beavertail (blackjack) but when Hicks swings, he falls down and has a change of heart. Eventually Boynt hires him at UOps. A paper match cover with an advertisement of Learn Oriental Attitude captures Hicks’ attention and changes his life.) Uncle Lefty suggests Hicks visit Thessalie Wayward? an office works at U-Ops who used to be a stage mentalist/psychic.

Chapter 5

Hicks meets Thessalie at Velocity Lunch. The day’s special is a “vivid green salad centerpiece the size and shape of a human brain, molded in lime Jell-O.” He wants to find out why his blackjack disappeared just before he was to hit a striker.  She explains the concept of “asported” (when something disappears suddenly off to someplace else. “Coming in at you the other way that’s an ‘apport.’ Happens in seances a lot, kind of a side effect. Ass and app as we say.” Hicks admits he now carries a gun (S & W .32) and she suggests he see Lew Basnight to learn the Curly Bill Spin.

Chapter 6

Hicks meets Lew Basnight at the Chicago Bar Otto’s Oasis and orders a Doc Holiday drink. Lew shows Hicks the Curly Bill Spin-a trick move when you hand over a handgun. Lew longs to return out West.

The Doc Holiday

“Old Overholdt (a rye whiskey), Doc’s preferred brand, plus Nehi peach soda, in recognition of his native Georgia, plus maybe a half jigger of absinthe if available, to put an edge on it and over ice.”

Chapter 7

Hicks takes April to a Dracula movie on Valentine’s Day. At a “no-name-drink-and-dance joint Hicks gets word from Angie “Vumvum” Voltaggio that April is the fiancé of the gangster Dom Peppino Infernacci. Vumvum is Infernacci’s enforcer, but Vumvum goes back a few years with Hicks. A few days later a few of Dom’s boys try to rough up Hicks, but he punches one of the guys out.

Chapter 8

Hicks joins Skeet at the Viaduct, a “clubhouse” full of “pieces of electrical gear blinking and chirping at each other.” A kid named Drover picks up German naval code on the shortwave from a U-Boat.  They are joined in the clubhouse by Stuffy Keegan who explains that the submarine known as U-13, is an “unsurrendered” Austro-Hungarian sub from the Great War. Considering the authorities are after Stuffy for the bombing. “Two different kinds of trouble, ain’t it, one you end up dead, the other dead and in hell.” Says Stuffy. Later, on a frozen Lake Michigan Stuffy, walks out to the U-13.

Chapter 9

A platinum young dame Fancy Vivid come into U-Ops asking for Stuffy. Says Stuffy asked her about joining him on a submarine (she thought it was a sex act). Later Hicks has a daydream with Stuffy in it. (In the dream “Stuffy’s attention has moved elsewhere as if he’s caught a glimpse of the next world and can’t look away.”  Hicks thinks he has let Stuffy down.

Chapter 10

Hicks joins his Uncle Lefty for dinner and the two take a streetcar to a fancy German themed bowling alley – New Nuremberg Lanes. “Something here is off,” thinks Hicks, “people are only pretending to bowl.” Hick runs into a friend from school Ooly Schauft, who goes by Ulrich. The Feds led by Vic Dubow bust the joint. Later Hicks asks his Uncle Lefty about his experiences with the Feds. Lefty warns Hicks that the Feds “are trying to hang the Stuffy Keegan bombing on you.”

Chapter 11

Assistant Special Agent in Charge T.P. O’Grizbee calls Hicks into the federal courthouse to question him about Stuffy Keegan. Hicks learns from Grizbee about the origins of the U-13. Grizbee wants to hire Hicks but Hicks balks. Grizbee pressures Hicks by threatening to bust Skeet for his shortwave radio operation.

Chapter 12

At the offices of U-Ops, Boynt explains to Hicks that the agency is eventually going more upscale and Hicks would be in line for a promotion. Boynt wants Hicks to take the Daphne Airmont Case. Reluctantly, Hicks accompanies Boynt to the law offices of Godwin Zipf and meets with “an office type” named Peckenway who makes them a money offer they cannot refuse to return Daphne to her home. Peckenway asks Hicks about his previous relationship with Daphne.

Chapter 13

Cheese is “considered a living entity.” The backstory about Bruno Airmont’s fortune – his competition with Kraft Velveeta and the health concerns of one of his products Radio-Cheez, the cheese that was designed to stay fresh forever, but had a radioactive ingredient. Bruno meets the real Al Capone.  Hicks meets G. Rodney Flaunch the fiancé that Daphne left behind. Rodney signs the contract for Hicks to go after Daphne. Bruno’s wife Mrs. Vivacia Airmont tells Hicks that Daphne has run away with Hop Wingdale, a clarinetist for the dance band the Klezmopolitans.

Chapter 14

The backstory of how Hicks met/rescued Daphne. Hicks takes a craft boat to No Man’s Land (near the Plaza de Lago Spanish court) near Wilmette. He drinks with Giancarlo Foditto AKA Dippy Chavez – a gangster who has the hots for Lois, a friend of Daphne. Daphne is on the run from a psychiatric hospital and he gives her a boat ride to the safety of an Indian reservation.  

Chapter 15

While walking on the street two delivery guys disguised as elves hand Hicks a “ticking” present. Using a nearby shoe store x-ray machine and a penny scale that tells fortunes, Hicks realizes it’s a bomb and throws it in the frozen Lake Michigan. “KA-BOOM. And then …a colorful and earsplitting fountain of ice, blood, silt, factory waste, and pieces, of perch, pike, whitefish, and two or three varieties of trout meanwhile hurtling skyward…” Hicks shows up at April’s place, wondering about his cover. April suggests he talk to her Uncle Cici who is Francesco “Finger of Death” Sfuzzino and Lew Basnight. Hicks has no idea who tried to kill him with a bomb.

Chapter 16

Boynt sends Hicks out of town to New York City via Chicago. Skeet says goodbye to Hicks and says he’s looking into Stuffy’s case. The cop Lino Trapanese pulls up in limo and invites Hicks inside. He tells Hicks to talk to Dippy Chazz. On a boat cruise down the Lake Michigan coastline, April reminds Hicks she is Dom Peppino’s moll. April sees Hicks off at the Union Station concourse.

Chapter 17

On the train from Chicago to New York, Hicks meets pullman porter McKinley Gibbs who shares his jazz record recollection with Hicks.

Chapter 18

Hicks meets with Connie McSpool at the New York branch of U-Ops. Hicks learns that Daphne is heading overseas. He goes “Gold Fidelity” and gets a passport and boat ticket as he is re-assigned to follow Daphne. Hicks goes with Connie to a nightspot in Harlem.

Chapter 19

After being drugged Hicks wakes up on an ocean liner Stupendica. He meets a fashion writer Glow Tripforth del Vastro on the saloon deck. Hicks meets Royal Navy Lieutenant-Commander Alf-Quarrender and his wife Phillipa. Unexpectedly, Dom Porfino is on board and he chats with Hicks.

Chapter 20

MI3b agents Alf and Phillipa discuss their lives as British operatives to Hicks as they move to the Stupendica casino. Hicks shares his childhood summer memories in Wonewoc, Wisconsin, which included seances.  Hicks is summoned to the radio room to talk to Stuffy Keegan who is about the U13 sub, which is following the ocean liner. Hicks worries about Porfirio who has a pair of antique Wogden dueling pistols and he’s unsure about being with Glow. The liner arrives in Tangier and Porfirio and Glow disembark together and take off in an autogyro.  

At this point the setting shifts to Europe — mostly Balkan countries (Hungary, Yugoslavia) for the remainder of the novel.

Chapter 21

In Belgrade Alf and Pips (Phillipa) leave and are replaced by Egon Praediger of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC).  ICPC has reciprocal agreements with U-Ops. Egon fills Hicks in on Bruno Airmont counterfeit cheese operation. Egon assigns Hicks to follow Ace Lomax one of Bruno’s deputies. An arrangement with apportist Dr. Zoltan von Kiss has been made to help capture Lomax.

Chapter 22

At the Oktogon district in Budapest, Zolti or ZvK (Zoltan’s nickname) and Hicks meet Zolti’s female apportist assistant Terike who motors up in a Moto Guzzi motorcycle with uninhibited exhaust.” She accepts a payment from Zolti and leaves. Egon arrives in Budapest and assigns Hicks to obtain a tasteless table lamp known as “La Lampo Plej Malbongusto. ” Bruno wants the lamp and ICPC thinks he will send Lomax to get the lamp. ZvK and Hicks go to a room off a back alley where assport-apport activities abound. ZvH introduces Hicks to Schnuki, Dieter and Heinz-an anti-Soviet assassination squad. Hicks is supposed to watch the lamp, when Ace Lomax shows up. Ace and Hicks realize they are pawns and avoid shooting each other over the lamp which has since assported (disappeared).

Chapter 23

Still in Budapest, Hicks shares a cigarette with Pip when a jealous Alf suddenly appears. They tell Hicks about Ustache (Mustache?), a Croatian Nationalist Group against Yugoslavia. Alf has been working the Crossword Suicide Café trying to solve a puzzle. In a café, Pip, Alf and Hicks see the illusive black marketer Vassily Midoff, who they seeking. Schnuki, Dieter and Heinz show up in the Böhemerland Long Touring motorcycle and spooks Midoff.

Chapter 24

Praediger of ICPS is upset that they were unable to apprehend Bruno. Hicks leaves with Terike and she takes him on a motorcycle cycle ride to Club Hypo where they are greeted by Zsofi. Terike tells Hicks about her Hungarian childhood. Hicks runs into “Slide” Gearheart a freelance correspondent who tells Hicks that the band that Daphne travels with The Klezmopolitans have broken up.

Chapter 25

Hicks hears Daphne perform at the Tropkis an all-night dance-cabaret in Budapest Broadway district. The house band itches to go Latin, “impatient little raps and flourishes among the percussion and brass, apparently misplaced beats in the waltzes and foxtrots till at last collapsing into Latin American fanfare…” After she sings, Hicks and Daphne recall their boat trip off Winnetka. Daphne says she is not running with but running after Hop Wingdale. Daphne gives an account of her breakup with Hop.

Chapter 26

Daphne negotiates with Hicks employing him to find Hop. Hick goes up to Daphne’s hotel room, but she is unable to seduce him.  She admits it is dangerous for her in Europe, but convinces Hicks to take the case and change the ticket. (Note at U-Hops all assignments are made on tickets – like writing down an order.—e.g. Chapter 1, page 10. Hence when Hicks’ assignments are changed the ticket must also be changed.)

Chapter 27

In Geneva Hop’s booking agent Nigel Trevelyan books Hop on a lengthy motorcycle rally gig known as the Trans-Trianon 2000 Tour of Hungary Unredeemed. Nigel warns Hop not to look too Jewish considering the rise of Nazism. Nigel predicts “dark ages, dim at least” and this trip would provide intel on possible Jewish escape roots.

Chapter 28

Hicks tells Slide how he longs to return to Milwaukee. Terike tells Hicks that she is going to do the Trans-Trianon. Slide warns Hicks that Egon is a devotee of the “nasal bobsled team” (cocaine addict). At the Night of the Word cabaret which feature Face-Tube, the future of flirtation. On the tube, a youthful-looking Bruno talks to her daughter Daphne. Bruno and Daphne leave and go to a dilapidated movie house to see a film about eating entitled “Bigger Than Your Stummick” (1931) starring child start Squeezita Thickly. Bruno tells Daphne she has inherited thousands of cows from her grandfather and wants her to liquidate. Slide fills Hicks in on Daphne and Jew tracker Heino Zäpfchen who is looking for Hop as well. Hicks learns about the anti-Jewish Vlad Boys who are looking for Hop as well. A couple of days later Slide and Zdanĕk (who claims to be a Czech golem from Bratislava known for its militant Jews. ) pick up Hicks in an Alfa Romero and convinces him to join them at the Trianon.

Chapter 29

Both Terike and Ace Lomax (who used to work for Bruno) ride separately in the Trans-Trianon 2000 Tour – “bikers in motion, some riding clockwise, some counter-, not a rally, not a race, not a pilgrimage, no timekeepers, no grand prizes, no order of finish, no finish line for that matter…”

Chapter 30

Station chief Arvo Thorp in the Vienna office of MI3b assign Pip and Alf to locate the disappearing Bolshevik Vassily Madoff at the motorcycle rally. With the assistance of comrades (former entertainers?) Yori & Yelena, Vassily is able to escape being assassinated by Pip and Alf by escaping on a dirigible/zeppelin that looks like a giant watermelon.

Chapter 31

Hicks, Slide and Zdanĕk roll into a parts depot in the Transylvania Forrest. Hicks runs into Terike whose motorcycle is in for carburetor repairs. She tells Hicks she is looking for Ace. In a conversation over a shortwave with Heino Zäpfchen, Zdanĕk has found out that Hop is at a guerrilla camp near the Hungarian border.

Chapter 32

Ace runs into Hop at a club and tells Hop about his relationship with Bruno who wanted to hire Ace to Hop and when Ace refused to do it, Bruno went after Ace. Ace soon takes off.  Back at the parts depot, Hicks wrestles with his mixed feelings about Terike who is wondering where Ace has taken off to, but  Ace has made a wrong turn on the road and “is in the hands of the Vladboys.”

Chapter 33

In the Vladboys training camp, Aces is being held by Csonger, until he is rescued by Zdanĕk and Hop.

Chapter 34

In a beer garden in Hamburg where the Klezmopolitans used to play Daphne is trapped by Hitler youth when she is rescued by Glow Tripforth del Vasto in an autogyro. They stop to get a drink and Glow tells Daphne how she met her husband Porfirio del Vasto. Finally Glow drops Daphne in Fiume.

Chapter 35

Daphne runs into Hop at a Yugoslavian roadhouse near Fiume. Hope tries to explain what he was doing while pretending to being a Klezmer clarinetist, but she is unforgiving on how he mislead her. She leaves him behind and runs into Hicks down at the waterfront. She tells Hicks she is going back to Milwaukee on a liner. Hicks asks her to take a message stateside for him.

Chapter 36

Outside of Fiume Bruno has a villa. In Fiume, Hicks runs in Terike who is still trying to follow Ace, but Ace wants Bruno to pay him in “dollars, dinars, Reichsmarks, ..even blood” for the trouble Bruno has caused him. Ace goes to the villa.  In a salon (in Yugoslavia?) where Porfirio has come following his ex, Glow, Porfirio steals some earrings (black Moor earrings?) from a Berlin chorus girl, but they are returned to her courtesy of Zoltan’s apportist skills. Zoltan tells Hicks that the U13 sub with Stuffy Keegan is anchored just of Fiume.  A crash of a chandelier and attention has turned to Praediger who nearly captures Bruno, but Ace offers his former boss and escape on his motorcycle which Bruno accepts.

Chapter 37

Hicks and Stuffy go into a beer joint where they meet Ernest Hauffnitz a sub captain who tells them how Bruno is wanted by the Cheese Syndicate (InCHSyn) for embezzlement and he gives them a history of the U13.  Bruno offers Daphne money but she refuses – she has made arrangements to get her father out to the sub via a small craft. Hauffnitz welcomes Bruno who now realizes that he is there as a prisoner, orchestrated by Stuffy Keegan who had been hired by the Cheese Syndicate.

Chapter 38

Hicks runs into Dippy Chazz Fodito (Ch.14) in Sicily. Dippy tells Hicks it’s all over for him in Milwaukee and Chicago. Hicks calls his mother in Chicago.

Chapter 39

The U13 surfaces, Bruno thinks he seesthe Statue of Liberty but Stuffy says no – you’re in exile and not going back to the states.  Realizing that he too is not going back to the States, Hicks joins Terike who has zoomed into his life.  On the shortwave Skeet sends Hicks an update from Milwaukee. He’s going to California with Zinnia? with money that Lew Basnight has loaned him. He tells Hicks to keep in touch and maybe he’ll catch a broadcast from Stuffy on the U13 as well.

Final note: It took me almost reading the entire book before I understood the title. “Ticket” comes from the writing out the ticket for a private detective assignment.  The “Shadow” comes from the second half of the book which is set in Europe. Nazism and fascism are casting a shadow on the world and the main character Hicks sees the coming storm.