Showing results by author "Bill Pronzini" in All Categories

The sleepy town of Tule Bend came alive with terror after a drifter was found hanging. The constable knew his job was on the line if he didn't do something. When more swinging bodies appeared he knew he had to move fast because he was next on the hangman's list.

Secret Service agent John Quincannon has found little joy in his life since the day his stray bullet killed an innocent young woman and her unborn child. Still in mourning a year later, Quincannon seeks his solace at the bottom of a jug of sour mash. But he'll have to buck up-and sober up for his next mission. The Service needs him to bring down a major counterfeiting ring responsible for the death of one of his colleagues.

A collection of short mystery stories by award-winning author Bill Pronzini. In "The Man Who Collected the Shadows", a mild-mannered file clerk with a passion for pulpy detective stories learns that he has supernatural powers. In "Shade Work", a con man picks the wrong marks. Fans of mysteries and detective novels will enjoy listening to these 14 entertaining stories.

Matthew Cape has no time to worry about his fears; caught up in events not of his making, but inescapable, he does things he's never dared and goes places he's only dreamed about. He's given up everything he ever had, but nothing at all of what he is, and if there's a price to pay, Cape is the one who will pay it. The Corvette is easy, the skydiving fun, and gambling, well... that has always been a passion, though never at stakes this high.

Men who participated in a never-solved robbery of an armored truck are being picked off one-by-one 11 years after the crime.

A series of seemingly random murders along a 50-mile stretch of the rugged northern California coast, committed by an unknown dubbed the Coastline Killer. A young couple with marital problems, Shelby and Jay Macklin, who decide to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's at a friend's remote coastal cottage. Two couples in a neighboring home whose relationships are thick with festering menace. These are the main ingredients of this chilling and twist-filled tale.

Today, Bill Pronzini is famed for his private-eye stories about the Nameless Detective and for his Shamus-award winning short stories, and Barry N. Malzberg is one of America's premier science fiction writers, but back in their salad days they collaborated on a number of stories, which have now become legendary. Problems Solved collects all their crime and mystery collaborations, mostly written during the 1970's and early 1980's, and a few recent collaborations (including two new stories written especially for this volume).

Carmody, a sometimes detective who also works as a freelance bodyguard and smuggler, operates off the Mediterranean island of Majorca. There he deals with thieves, smugglers, murderers, and other desperate men. By the author of Breakdown.

Broke and fleeing his shattered marriage, Jack Lennox takes a bus towards the southwestern desert. He takes work with Al Perrins, only to see two well-dressed men murder Perrins the following morning. But they see Lennox, and he becomes both hunter and hunted. A novel of suspense by the author of The Snatch.

Three outlaws arrive in the country town of Big Tree, California, on a blazing hot day of a long dry summer, in this well-crafted western by veteran Pronzini ( The Last Days of Horse-Shy Halloran). A huge shipment of munitions is a-sittin' in Big Tree just a-waitin' to be stole-and they're a-goin' to do it. But the burglary gets bungled, an explosion sets the town on fire, and there is only one way out of the parched valley for the townsfolk - by train.

Things are heating up in Big Coulee. Unorthodox road agent Horse-shy Halloran, who got his name because horses always do him dirt, has been seen in town buying women's clothing. The gold miners' association is about to ship $70,000 of gold dust. The brutal and fearsome Burgoyne brothers are in the neighborhood. And Wells Fargo agent Samuel Quarternight has fallen in love with the banker's daughter, Faye.

The Nameless Detective may not like David Virden, but the case is simple enough: Find his first ex-wife, deliver some papers to her and it's all done. But she refuses the papers, sends a message to Virden to never contact her again, and slams the door. Then Virden threatens to sue Nameless, stops his payments and claims that the woman they located isn't his wife. Then Virden disappears himself and his fiancée hires Nameless to find out why.

Bill, the "Nameless Detective," and his wife Kerry were in the Sierra foothills, just outside of Six Pines, falling in love with a cabin. It was all perfect, until Kerry went missing. They'd seen Balfour at breakfast at the diner and Kerry remembered his name - PR people are like that. Which was unfortunate, because when she ran into him along the trail on that sunny afternoon and called him by name, he panicked. And that's when Bill's nightmare began.

A series of random murders along a stretch of northern California coast, committed by an unknown perpetrator dubbed the Coastline Killer. A young couple with marital problems who decide to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's at a friend's remote cottage. Two couples whose relationships are thick with festering menace. A fierce winter storm. These are the main ingredients in Bill Pronzini's twist-filled tale about the hidden nature of crime and its motives.

For each of the detectives at the agency, a betrayal becomes not only the driving force behind an investigation, but the source of the kind of resolve that cannot be derailed by threats. Tamara’s case began as something personal but explodes as an investigation of her former lover leads to a scam that cheats charities. For Nameless, trying to find out who is manipulating an old woman only exposes the ugly side of family. We’re told that there are seven deadly sins.

Nameless wasn’t supposed to come into the office on Mondays. He wasn’t supposed to answer the phone. On this Monday he did both. The call was from Barney Rivera - once a friend, now despised - at Great Western insurance. Against his better judgement, Nameless agreed to meet him. The investigation was relatively simple: a multimillionaire rare books collector had reported the theft of eight volumes, worth half a million dollars. From a locked library. To which he had the only key...

Nameless had told Mitchell Krochek that he’d do whatever he could to find his missing wife, Janice. She’d run away before - propelled by a gambling fever - and Mitch had always taken her back. This time, when Nameless, his partner Tamara, and the agency’s chief operative Jake Runyon finally found her in a sleazy San Francisco hotel, she demanded a divorce. A few days later, a beaten and bloody Janice stumbled into the agency begging to go home. Then she disappears again and Mitchell is the prime suspect

The first story, Trouble in Temescal, is set in Los Angeles in the days following the Mexican-American War, and tells the tale of two entrepreneurial mustangers, Hank Ashwood and Red Wolfe, who have driven a herd of horses from New Mexico to California for resale. The second story, King of the Defiances, is the story of Big Jim Jackson, who intends to make a fortune by logging off the best railroad-tie timber in Arizona, and his clash with former manhunter Troy Cameron, the leader of a group of small cattle ranchers who stand in Jackson's way.

In The Bughouse Affair, the first of a new series of lighthearted historical mysteries set in 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations. The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes.