Thomas Pynchon is publishing a private detective novel entitled Inherent Vice this summer--writing about a shamus solving a case during the 1960's.

Conversational Reading got the scoop via the Penguin catalog. Aficionados of Thomas Pynchon's hardboiled spy novel, V, or his conspiratorial detective-work in The Crying of Lot 49 can give thanks this weekend.

Here's a catalog sample:

"It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that 'love' is another of those words going around at the moment, like 'trip' or 'groovy,' except that this one usually leads to trouble ... [Pynchon] provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there . . . or . . . if you were there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . .."