Aficionados of Thomas Pynchon's hardboiled spy novel, V, or his conspiratorial detective-work in The Crying of Lot 49 have reason to celebrate this weekend. Critic Steven Moore gave a tantalizing look at the reclusive author's new book on Blog About Town:

"The rep told me it's around 400 pages, and is a kind of noir detective story set in the 1960s, with lots of psychedelia as background. How groovy is that! (Sounds like I'm making this up, but I swear to Xenu that's what he told me.)"

Moore set the publishing date at August 2009, giving us plenty of time to speculate about the adventures of a private dick living in a Pynchonian universe. Apparently this information has been circulating on mailing lists devoted to the work of Pynchon and William Gaddis for a few weeks now. (Thanks, Conversation Reading)