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Henry Swann book cover 1
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Henry Swann
Series · 4 books · 2008-2017

Books in series

Swann's Last Song book cover
#1

Swann's Last Song

2008

Skip tracer Henry Swann cares little about anything but money. When a beautiful Upper East Side woman shows up in his office and hires him to find her missing husband, Harry Janus, he smiles and takes the cash.
Swann Dives In book cover
#2

Swann Dives In

2012

From back of book: Swann's last case nearly killed him, emotionally and physically. Now he's sworn off his old profession and taken on a steady gig. But climbing stairs to hook poor people up to cable is hard on his knees... and not the kind of connections he's good at making. So when an opportunity arises to bring order to chaos for a price—his secret pleasure in life—Swann is pulled back in. The case starts simply, with a call to find a burglary suspect who's gone on the lam. But the twists and turns will take him right to the dizzying top of America's ivory towers. Swann is soon on the trail of a wealthy lawyer's rebellious daughter, who's disappeared along with her disreputable boyfriend. Finding the beau—an intellectual and amoral trickster—leads him into the dangerous midst of cutthroat academics, sexy librarians, and killer book collectors, with a priceless first edition of Tender is the Night the surprising prize along the way.
Swann's Lake of Despair book cover
#3

Swann's Lake of Despair

2014

When rare photos, a scandalous diary, and a beautiful woman all go missing at once, the stage is set for three challenging cases for Henry Swann. It begins with an offer to partner up with his slovenly, unreliable frenemy, Goldblatt. The disbarred lawyer-turned-"facilitator" would provide the leads and muscle, while Swann would do all the fancy footwork. A lost diary by a free-loving Jazz Age flapper is worth enough to someone that Swann takes a beat down on an abandoned boardwalk. Pilfered photos of Marilyn Monroe propel him deep into the past of an alcoholic shutterbug, his wife; and he's hired to search for a lonely writer's runaway girlfriend. The cases converge and collide in a finale that lifts the curtain on crucial, deadly facts of life for everyone ? including Swann himself.
Swann's Way Out book cover
#4

Swann's Way Out

2017

A friendly poker game leads Henry Swann out to Hollywood where he tries to find the man, Rusty Jacobs, responsible for embezzling $1,000,000 from his client, and then bring back the dough. Swann finds Jacobs, but the mercurial wannabe film producer is involved in a “surefire” movie project aimed at the growing Christian market. And the money? Well, it seems to have vanished into thin air. At the same time, thanks to his irrepressible partner, Goldblatt, Swann finds himself knee-deep in the New York City art world, as he tries to get justice for another client who’s possibly been defrauded on the purchase of a valuable painting that may or may not be a fake. As if this isn’t enough to keep him busy, in the midst of these two troubling cases, Swann finds that the teenage son whom he hasn’t seen in a dozen years has run away from his grandparent’s Minnesota home and, chasing after a girl, has possibly become involved with a cult. And so, a guilt-ridden Swann has to take time out from his paying cases to find his son.

Author

Charles Salzberg
Charles Salzberg
Author · 12 books

Charles Salzberg's latest novel, Swann's Lake of Despair, is the third in the Henry Swann Detective Series. When rare photos, a scandalous diary, and a beautiful woman all go missing at once, the stage is set for three challenging cases for this skip tracer and his slovenly, disbarred lawyer friend, Goldblatt. Devil in the Hole, his last novel, is a work of literary crime fiction based on the notorious John List murders, which is on shelves now, was just chosen by Suspense Magazine as one of the Best True Crime Novels of the Year. It is also now available as an e-book on Kindle. He is also the author of the Henry Swann detective series: Swann’s Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel; Swann Dives In; and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair. Salzberg has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he was a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City. His freelance articles has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He is also the author of From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, An Oral History of the NBA; On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball’s 10 Worst Teams of the Century; and co-author of My Zany Life and Times, by Soupy Sales, Catch Them Being Good; and The Mad Fisherman.

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