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.