Bill Pronzini Books In Order

Nameless Detective Books In Publication Order

  1. The Snatch (1971)
  2. The Vanished (1973)
  3. Undercurrent (1973)
  4. Blowback (1977)
  5. Twospot (1978)
  6. Labyrinth (1980)
  7. Hoodwink (1981)
  8. Scattershot (1982)
  9. Dragonfire (1982)
  10. Bindlestiff (1983)
  11. Quicksilver (1984)
  12. Nightshades (1984)
  13. Double (With: Marcia Muller) (1984)
  14. Bones (1985)
  15. Deadfall (1986)
  16. Shackles (1989)
  17. Jackpot (1990)
  18. Breakdown (1991)
  19. Quarry (1991)
  20. Epitaphs (1992)
  21. Demons (1993)
  22. Hardcase (1995)
  23. Sentinels (1996)
  24. Illusions (1997)
  25. Boobytrap (1998)
  26. Crazybone (2000)
  27. Bleeders (2001)
  28. Spook (2002)
  29. Nightcrawlers (2005)
  30. Mourners (2006)
  31. Savages (2007)
  32. Fever (2008)
  33. Schemers (2009)
  34. Betrayers (2010)
  35. Camouflage (2011)
  36. Hellbox (2012)
  37. Strangers (2014)
  38. Vixen (2015)
  39. Zigzag (2016)
  40. Endgame (2017)

Nameless Detective Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Kinsmen (2012)
  2. Femme (2012)

Nameless Detective Collections In Publication Order

  1. Casefile (1983)
  2. Spadework (1994)
  3. Scenarios (2003)

John Quincannon Books In Publication Order

  1. Quincannon (1985)
  2. Beyond the Grave (With: Marcia Muller) (1986)
  3. Quincannon’s Game (2005)

Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery Books In Publication Order

  1. The Bughouse Affair (By:Marcia Muller) (2013)
  2. The Spook Lights Affair (By:Marcia Muller) (2013)
  3. The Body Snatchers Affair (By:Marcia Muller) (2015)
  4. The Plague of Thieves Affair (By:Marcia Muller) (2016)
  5. The Dangerous Ladies Affair (By:Marcia Muller) (2017)
  6. The Bags of Tricks Affair (2018)
  7. The Flimflam Affair (2019)
  8. The Stolen Gold Affair (2020)
  9. The Paradise Affair (2021)

Carpenter and Quincannon Collections In Publication Order

  1. Carpenter & Quincannon, Professional Detective Services (1998)
  2. Quincannon’s Game (2005)

Charlie Chan Books In Publication Order

  1. Charlie Chan in The Pawns of Death (1974)

Academy Mystery Books In Publication Order

  1. Police Procedurals (1985)
  2. Locked Room Puzzles (1986)

Oxman and Tobin Mysteries Books In Publication Order

  1. The Eye (With: John Lutz) (1984)
  2. Shadowtown (By:John Lutz) (1988)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Stalker (1971)
  2. Panic! (1972)
  3. The Jade Figurine (1972)
  4. Snowbound / Games (1974)
  5. Dead Run (1975)
  6. Freebooty (1976)
  7. Games (1976)
  8. The Running of Beasts (1976)
  9. Acts of Mercy (1977)
  10. Wildfire (1978)
  11. A killing in Xanadu (1980)
  12. Prose Bowl (1980)
  13. Duel at Gold Buttes (1981)
  14. The Cambodia File (1981)
  15. Masques (1981)
  16. Border Fever (1983)
  17. Day of the Moon (1983)
  18. The Gallows Land (1983)
  19. Starvation Camp (1985)
  20. The Lighthouse (With: Marcia Muller) (1986)
  21. The Last Days of Horse-Shy Halloran (1987)
  22. Firewind (1989)
  23. The Hangings (1989)
  24. Carmody’s Run (1993)
  25. With an Extreme Burning (1994)
  26. Blue Lonesome (1995)
  27. A Wasteland of Strangers (1997)
  28. Nothing But the Night (1999)
  29. All the Long Years (2001)
  30. In an Evil Time (2001)
  31. Step to the Graveyard Easy (2002)
  32. The Alias Man (2004)
  33. The Crimes of Jordan Wise (2006)
  34. The Other Side of Silence (2008)
  35. The Hidden (2010)
  36. Nemesis (2013)
  37. The Violated (2017)
  38. Give-A-Damn Jones (2018)
  39. The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave (2019)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Pumpkin (2012)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Graveyard Plots (1985)
  2. Small Felonies (1988)
  3. The Best Western Stories of Bill Pronzini (1990)
  4. Stacked Deck (1991)
  5. Sleuths (1999)
  6. Problems Solved (2003)
  7. Burgade’s Crossing (2003)
  8. On Account of Darkness and Other Stories (With: Barry N. Malzberg) (2004)
  9. Coyote and Quarter-Moon (2006)
  10. Crucifixion River (With: Marcia Muller) (2007)
  11. Dago Red (2008)

Mammoth Book of… Collection Books In Publication Order

  1. Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels (1986)
  2. The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (1988)
  3. Mammoth Book of World War II Stories (1989)
  4. The Mammoth Book of Short Spy Novels (1996)

New Frontiers Collection Books In Publication Order

  1. New Frontiers, Vol. 1 (1990)
  2. New Frontiers, Vol. 2 (With: Martin H. Greenberg) (1990)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Gun in Cheek (1982)
  2. San Francisco (1985)
  3. 1001 Midnights (1986)
  4. Son of Gun in Cheek (1987)
  5. Six Gun In Cheek (1997)

World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories Books In Publication Order

  1. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 (2000)
  2. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2 (2000)
  3. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 (2002)
  4. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 4 (2003)
  5. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5 (2004)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Wondermakers 2 (1974)
  2. Mystery Writers’ Choice 1977 (1976)
  3. Midnight Specials (1977)
  4. Dark Sins, Dark Dreams (1979)
  5. Werewolf!: A Chrestomathy of Lycanthropy (1979)
  6. The End of Summer (1979)
  7. Night Screams (1979)
  8. Shared Tomorrows (1979)
  9. Voodoo (1980)
  10. Mummy! (1980)
  11. Bug-Eyed Monsters (1980)
  12. The Edgar Winners (1980)
  13. The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural (1981)
  14. Great Tales of Mystery and Suspense (1981)
  15. Classic Tales of Horror and the Supernatural (1981)
  16. The Arbor House Necropolis (1981)
  17. The Giant Book Of Horror Stories (1981)
  18. The Arbor House Treasury of Mystery and Suspense (1982)
  19. The Web She Weaves (1983)
  20. The Arbor House Treasury of Detective and Mystery Stories from the Great Pulps (1983)
  21. Bakers Dozen (1984)
  22. The Western Hall of Fame (1984)
  23. Child’s Ploy (1984)
  24. The Outlaws (1984)
  25. The Reel West (1984)
  26. Witches’ Brew (1984)
  27. 13 Short Mystery Novels (1984)
  28. The Mystery Hall of Fame (1984)
  29. The Arbor House Treasury of Great Western Stories (1985)
  30. Chapter and Hearse (1985)
  31. The Cowboys (1985)
  32. The Ethnic Detectives (1985)
  33. Dark Lessons (1985)
  34. She Won the West (1985)
  35. The Warriors (1985)
  36. Deadly Arts (1985)
  37. The Second Reel West (1985)
  38. Murder in the First Reel (1985)
  39. Wickedest Show on Earth (1985)
  40. Police Procedurals (1985)
  41. The Cattlemen (1986)
  42. Tales of Mystery (1986)
  43. Tales of the Dead (1986)
  44. The Railroaders (1986)
  45. Mean Streets: The Second Private Eye Writers of America Anthology (1986)
  46. The Steamboaters (1986)
  47. Great Modern Police Stories (1986)
  48. The Third Reel West (1986)
  49. Mystery in the Mainstream (1986)
  50. 101 Mystery Stories (1986)
  51. Wild Westerns (1986)
  52. Prime Suspects (1987)
  53. Manhattan Mysteries (1987)
  54. The Horse Soldiers (1987)
  55. Uncollected Crimes (1987)
  56. Suspicious Characters (1987)
  57. 13 Short Detective Novels (1987)
  58. The Gunfighters (1987)
  59. Lady on the Case (1988)
  60. Cloak and Dagger (1988)
  61. The Texans (1988)
  62. Best of the West (1988)
  63. Homicidal Acts (1988)
  64. Criminal Elements (1988)
  65. Kill or Cure (1989)
  66. The Californians (1989)
  67. Felonious Assaults (1989)
  68. The Arizonans (1989)
  69. More Wild Westerns (1989)
  70. Deadly Doings (1989)
  71. The Northwesterners (1990)
  72. Crime and Crime Again (1990)
  73. The Northerners (1990)
  74. Best of the West 2 (1990)
  75. Best of the West III (1990)
  76. Christmas Out West (1990)
  77. A Treasury of World War II Stories (1991)
  78. A Treasury of Civil War Stories (1991)
  79. The Montanans (1991)
  80. Combat! (1992)
  81. The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories (1992)
  82. Criminal Intent (1993)
  83. Great Tales Of The West (1994)
  84. Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural (1994)
  85. Hardboiled (1995)
  86. Torture Trek and Eleven Other Action-Packed Stories of the Wild West (1995)
  87. Gunfight! (1996)
  88. A Century of Mystery (1997)
  89. The Giant Book of War Stories (1997)
  90. Giant Book of Short Crime Stories (1997)
  91. Detective Duos (1997)
  92. The Giant Book of Private Eye Stories (1997)
  93. Pure Pulp (1999)
  94. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 (2000)
  95. Oddments (2000)
  96. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2 (2000)
  97. A Century of Great Suspense Stories (2001)
  98. More Oddments (2001)
  99. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 (2002)
  100. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 4 (2003)
  101. Masters of Horror and the Supernatural (2010)
  102. Deadly Anniversaries (2020)

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Bill Pronzini Books Overview

The Vanished

His name was Roy Sands, and he had everything to look forward to. He was getting out of the service and coming home to marry his beautiful Fiancee. He had his debts paid, money in the bank, and a happy new life ahead of him. Then he disappeared.

Undercurrent

Newlywed Judith Paige hires Nameless to find out if her husband is having an affair. Nameless follows Walter Paige to a motel room in Cypress Bay, where Paige is murdered. Nameless must found out who murdered Paige, and investigates. As he investigates, the list of suspects grows.

Double (With: Marcia Muller)

Attending a private eye convention in her hometown, Sharon McCone catches up with old friends, until one is suddenly killed in a suspicious fall and recruits Wolf, the Nameless Detective, for her investigation. PW.

Bones

An old grave opens a new case of murder. Recent murders are difficult but not unsolvable. This time Nameless is called upon to solve a murder that happened four decades ago. Called to do the impossible, he takes the case merely because the victim was a pulp writer. Nameless of course is a pulp fan. We follow Nameless in his quest of trying to quell the questions of a neurotic son determined to find out how his writer father really died. Was it a suicide or murder? ‘Pronzini makes people and events so real that you’re living those explosive days of terror.’ Robert Ludlum’Once in a crocodile’s age you come across a writer whose work you instinctively like…
I’ve found one Bill Pronzini. Buy him, read him, and relax.’ Los Angeles Times’A skilled writer working at the top of his ability.’ Denver Post’Pronzini delivers breathtaking suspense’ San Francisco Examiner’His novels are packed with adventure, fresh characterization, and minute by minute suspense.’ Chicago Tribune’Pronzini is the master of the shivery, spine tingling it could happen suspense story.’ Publisher’s Weekly’Pronzini is a pro.’ The New York Times

Shackles

In Bill Pronzini’s harrowing novel of entrapment, suffering, transmogrification and revenge a detective is abducted by a masked man who will tell him only that the object is revenge; Nameless awakens to find himself chained to a table in a remote cabin, provided thirteen weeks food and water within arms reach and with only his resources and courage to rely upon as he seeks to escape from this death sentence.

Epitaphs

Hired to track down old pal Pietro Lombardi’s granddaughter, Nameless enters the seedy underworld of late night burials and graverobbing. By the author of Breakdown, Jackpot, and Shackles.

Demons

The Nameless Detective returns to find himself searching for the seductive and potentially lethal enchantress who hires him to tail her cheating husband and then disappears herself.

Hardcase

Hired by rich model Melanie Ann Aldrich to discover the identity of her biological parents, Nameless uncovers an ugly truth in the young woman’s home town that makes him the target of a frenzied killer. AB. PW.

Sentinels

A worried mother job takes Nameless to a California backwater, where college student Allison McDowell has disappeared with her mysterious new boyfriend on a drive from Oregon to San Francisco. And behind a simple missing persons case lies a sinister and deadly conspiracy. ‘Nameless’ is a good man to walk you through the noir landscape. Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review ‘Nameless’ has become an American treasure…
. A stunning and unique achievement in crime fiction. Booklist One of the best in the mystery suspense field is Bill Pronzini. Washington Post

Illusions

Following his success in Sentinels, ‘Nameless’, who has been praised as the ‘thinking person’s detective’, is back! Caught between two difficult investigations one personal and one professional. ‘Nameless’ has become increasingly obsessed with his investigation into the suicide of his estranged friend and former partner, Eberhardt, when he is hired by a Santa Fe businessman to find his ex wife. The job soon takes on frightening dimensions when the client turns up dead. Then disturbing facts about the couple’s past begin to emerge. Both cases lead ‘Nameless’ down a twisted path strewn with the Illusions people adopt for themselves and perceive in others. Ultimately ‘Nameless’ is torn between the two cases and must make a painful choice. Illusions is a superb psychological mystery that delves deeply into human imagination.

Boobytrap

The ‘Nameless Detective’ welcomes the chance for a quiet holiday at Deep Mountain Lake but also there is recently paroled explosives expert Donald Latimer. No coincidence for Latimer has devised a plan for revenge against the men who sent him to prison.

Crazybone

Posh and affluent, a mecca for the horsy set, the California community of Greenwood hides its dirty laundry behind the stuccoed facades of Spanish style houses and locks its secrets inside wrought iron gates. ‘Nameless’ knows that as well as any, but he uncovers more deceit, adultery, fraud, and betrayal not to mention larceny and murder than he might have expected in this tautly concocted novel of crime and detection. Yet, even before ‘Nameless’ visits the handsomely appointed offices of the blond, tanned insurance agent Rich Twining and the estate of the recently widowed Sheila Hunter, his private investigator’s suspicions are raised. For why would anyone, however rich and beautiful and bereaved, refuse to claim fifty thousand dollars due in life insurance? The question is simple enough, but the answer lies several murders, many miles, ten years, a devious name game, and one baffling clue Crazybone away. As always, ‘Nameless’ proves himself ‘the thinking man’s detective’ Chicago Sun Times, and his creator, Bill Pronzini, keeps the suspenseful pages turning up to this uncanny novel’s moment of revelation.

Bleeders

A simple case gets murderously complicated when ‘Nameless,’ Bill Pronzini’s seasoned private eye, exposes a nasty scam that involves junior account executive Jay Cohalan, his unhappy wife, and a mistress with a serious drug problem. It’s the kind of case ‘Nameless’ likes, because Bleeders the blackmailers, extortionists, small time grifters, and other opportunists who prey on the weak and gullible top his list of worthless human parasites. So there’s nothing he enjoys more than putting another one or two of them out of commission and returning the $75,000 in blackmail cash to its rightful owner. ‘Nameless,’ though, cannot so easily close his Cohalan file not when he finds his client face down in the middle of a four poster bed with a bloody, powder scorched hole behind the right ear. And only by a hair’s breadth does ‘Nameless’ himself escape a similar cold blooded fate. His mind and gut wrenched by his brush with death, ‘Nameless’ embarks on a relentless hunt for his unknown assailant in San Francisco’s shadowy underworld. There he encounters Bleeders of every ilk before he finds his quarry and confronts his own demons in a climax as powerful as it is shocking and unexpected.

Spook

A Shamus Award winning Author

With a new case, a new partner, and a new P.I., Nameless is back. Shaken after a hair’s breadth escape from death, Nameless has made some changes, he has taken on a young assistant and hired a reticent ex cop with a hammerhead jaw and a troubled past. /Content /EditorialReview EditorialReview Source Amazon. com Review /Source Content Deaths among the homeless don’t usually provoke background probes. But when a transient known as Spook because ‘he had ghosts living inside his head’ is shot outside the offices of a San Francisco film industry supplier, employees there want to know why. ‘He didn’t have a mean bone in his body,’ one staffer assures Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective in Spook. So was this just the random slaying of a street crazy, or had someone from Spook‘s unknown past maybe Dot or Luke, the apparitions he was always jabbering to finally come gunning for him?

In Nameless’ 28th novel length outing, but his first since the pivotal Bleeders in which he almost hung up his gumshoes for good, Pronzini’s classically wrought sleuth is preparing for semiretirement, turning over responsibilities to his young PI partner, Tamara Corbin. He’s also breaking in a new investigator, reserved ex cop and widower Jake Runyon, to whom he hands off the identity search little knowing how quickly that case will turn ugly, linking the ‘gentle, friendly’ Spook to the murder of another homeless man and a long ago triple homicide in the California Sierras. Meanwhile, Nameless finishes up a high profile dig into questionable practices among city employees. This secondary plot lacks the intrigue of Runyon’s task; however, both investigations generate action, including a hostage situation and a not so merry chase during a Christmas benefit. More than two decades after this series’ initial installment, The Snatch, Nameless’s assignments have become less conventional, and he’s been mellowed by age, marriage, and too much death. Yet, even at age 61, he’s more vital than many newer, less deservedly cynical competitors. J. Kingston Pierce

Nightcrawlers

Bill Pronzini’s ‘Nameless’ detective has become one of the longest lived, and consistently highly praised, private investigators in the annals of American crime fiction and the award winning author proves, once again, that his skills are unmatched. Things were quiet in the San Francisco based agency Nameless founded and hispartners, Jake and Vanessa were itching to get back to work. A deadbeat father needed to be found, and Vanessa needed to do some field work, so she took the file and headed out to keep an eye on the last known address. Jake got to work on something much more personal…
and dangerous. The Castro had become the stomping ground, literally, of two violent gay bashers and the most recent victim was Jake’s son’s lover. Father and son are estranged, but maybe helping now would help them reconcile. That was Jake’s thought when he started. For Nameless it was all a matter of letting everyone know that if they needed his help, he was there. Jake was handling his situation but for Vanessa, things got out of hand. Her perp never showed up, but when she saw a man carrying a young girl into the house across the street, she knew something was wrong…
. and about to get worse, because she was going to investigate what was going on. When she doesn’t show up a few days later, Nameless feels a sinking in his gut: a few years ago he’d been kidnapped, shackled, and left to die in a cabin in the woods and something about Vanessa’s disappearance echoed too loudly. When he discovers the house she’d investigated on her own and sees the words TAKING US TO A HOUSE IN THE WOODS scrawled on a closet wall, the echo became thunderous. Now it was a race against time, and the clock had begun ticking before ‘Nameless’ and Jake heard the starter’s gun.

Mourners

Nameless doesn t like funerals, so his new case is less than pleasant. James Troxell’s wife knew he was up to something and that the agency had taken the case. So far, though, the only thing strange very strange was the fact that Troxell was spending all his time going to funerals and sending flowers to survivors. It didn t seem that he knew the deceased any more than Nameless did. There was one similarity: the victims were all women and they had all died violently. As the days passed and the investigation stalled, it seemed the only thing moving were the emotions of the three detectives: Tamara, Jake, and Nameless. While they couldn t be certain, it seemed clear that each of them was beginning to mourn too. The author of more than sixty novels, Bill Pronzini created Nameless in a short story in 1969; the first novel was published in 1971, making his exploits the longest running private eye series currently being published. There s a reason for that longevity: Nameless is, as the Chicago Sun Times said, the classic private eye hero pared down to the bone.

Savages

The police said it was an accident, the dead woman’s sister said it was murder…
and that she knew who did it. Nameless isn’t certain, but the more he learns about Nancy Mathias’s life, the more inclined he is to accept the likelihood of murder especially as the players still alive become more and more distasteful. Combine that with the situation Jake Runyon, one of the agency’s partners, is facing as he searches for a young man who is either a murderer or a victim, and life at their San Francisco detective agency has everyone on edge.

Fever

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 that grew ever higher 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. No one is surprised when, soon after her homecoming, she disappears again.

But gambling addiction has a way of twisting things, and the blood on Mitchell and Janice Krochek s kitchen floor was a card off the bottom of the deck.

Janice is missing again, Mitchell is the prime suspect, and as Nameless searches for the truth behind her disappearance, he uncovers a vicious racket that preys on gambling Fever victims

Schemers

A new Nameless Detective story from the 2008 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master…

A locked room mystery that goes from stolen books to stolen lives and the hunt for a phantom stalker with a penchant for pouring acid to make his point give Nameless and his partner Jake more than enough work to earn their fees-as long as neither turns his back at the wrong moment.

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 judgment, Nameless agreed to meet with him. The investigation was relatively simple: a multimillionaire rare books collector had reported the theft of eight volumes, worth a half million dollars. From a locked library. To which he has the only key. The books were all crime fiction and suspense–a locked room mystery about mysteries.

This ordinary Monday brought a second oddball case. The Henderson brothers were being stalked. Someone had dug up the ashes of their late father and poured acid over them, then destroyed the headstone the same way, and left a sign warning that this was just the beginning. Searching for peace of mind and the distraction of work, Jake Runyon is more than happy to bring an end to the brothers’ terror.

Betrayers

We’re told that there are seven deadly sins; not on the list is the deadliest of them all: Betrayal. For each of the detectives at the agency, a betrayal-personal, against a child, against the elderly-becomes not only the driving force behind an investigation, but the source of the kind of resolve that cannot be derailed by threats of any kind.

Tamara’s case began as something personal but explodes as her investigation of her former lover Lucas Zeller leads to a scam bilking charities in the name of helping the homeless and indigent. For Nameless, with a case he doesn’t want but can’t turn down, trying to find out who is gaslighting an old woman only exposes the ugly side of family. When he goes home, tired and annoyed, he discovers that his adopted daughter, Emily, has a secret of her own. Runyon has a different difficulty: his case of a bailjumper with some bad family ties is easy enough as these things go, but he’s being confronted by a demon that is going to try to force him into a betrayal….

Three people who care, three people devoted to helping others trying to help themselves, three people finding themselves in a world of hurt because of the Betrayers.

Camouflage

Nameless may not like David Virden, but the case is simple enough: find his ex wife and they know where she is. 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. His colleague, Tamara, tells Nameless that Virden threatens to sue, stops payment on his checks, and claims that the woman they located isn t his wife. Then he disappears and his fianc e hires Nameless to find out why. Clearly, someone is trying to make Nameless the monkey in the middle. The investigation that Nameless’s partner, Jake Runyon, has to undertake is personal and urgent. His girlfriend Bryn s son, a pawn in a bitter divorce settlement, is being beaten and every indication is that his father is responsible. Is he bitter enough to take out his frustrations on a young boy, to fracture his arm? Then events turn on Jake: a dead woman, a bloodied Bryn, and a scared and silent child force him to look in other, darker, more deadly directions.

Quincannon

A troubled Secret Service agent is needed to bring down a major counterfeiting ring a job that will force him to come face to face with his tragic past.

Beyond the Grave (With: Marcia Muller)

The bestselling author of The McCone Files teams up with the creator of the ‘Nameless Detective’ for a collaborative mystery that bridges the San Franciscos of 1894 and 1986. Muller and Pronzini masterfully parallel the investigations of turn of the century detective Quincannon and Chicana amateur sleuth Elena Oliverez.

Carpenter & Quincannon, Professional Detective Services

1890’s detection in the Old West! When you are faced with puzzles involving fraudulent rainmakers, nefarious spiritualists, coney games,a one eyed lady gambler, a crook who disappears from a train, the stolen body of a Chinese Tong leader, and similar mysteries you hire the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. Sabina Carpenter, the widow of a Pinkerton detective, has joined forces with John Quincannon, a former United States Secret Service agent in fact, Quincannon would like to join forces in other ways, but his partner continues to resist his lustful advances. Carpenter and Quincannon includes some of Bill Pronzini’s finest short stories.

Charlie Chan in The Pawns of Death

‘Checkmate!’ That was the last word uttered to Charlie Chan and Prefect of Police Claude DeBevre by a dying reporter. The man had been murdered…
stabbed to death and left to die in a vacant hotel room. It is the second murder in 24 hours at the Transcontinental Chess Tournament, and Charlie Chan has been summoned from a peaceful and long deserved vacation to help solve the crime before international scandal ruins the tournament’s good name! Originally published in Charlie Chan’s Mystery Magazine in 1974, this is the first book appearance of The Pawns of Death.

Police Procedurals

Four short novellas featuring police procedures.

Snowbound / Games

SNOWBOUND When the Sacramento heist turns sour, the three gunmen head for the Sierra Nevada mountains to the safe house they had set up for themselves in the small village of Hidden Valley. There is a storm approaching and the residents there are preparing for Christmas. None of them have any idea of the killers in their midst. Rebecca Hughes is too busy dealing with her faithless husband. John Tribucci and his wife Ann are getting ready for the birth of their first child. And all Zachary Cain wants to do is drink himself into forgetfulness over the death of his family. None of them are prepared for three desperate men who decide to pull the ultimate heist and hold an entire town hostage!

GAMES Senator David Jackman needed to get away for the weekend, and he had just the spot in mind the family island, a secluded spot off the coast of Maine. And he had just the person in mind to join him his free spirited mistress, Tracy. But once they arrive, nothing seems right. All the guns are missing from the house. They find a couple of dead animals, ritualistically slaughtered. Then their boat is stolen. Soon, suspicion turns to terror as David and Tracy are stalked by two deadly and possibly deranged adversaries. The Old Man had always told David that life is a game, but if that is the case, this could be the biggest game of all and the final one!

Dead Run

From the author of The Jade Figurine and Breakdown comes an unbeatable Far Eastern adventure featuring Pronzini’s most intriguing character. Aboard a ship bound for exotic Kuala Lumpur, Don Connell discovers he’s being pursued but he can’t figure out why. ‘Stylish writing, an exotic locale and deft characterization add up to a treat.’ Publishers Weekly.

The Gallows Land

Following the death of his young wife, Roy Boone wanders aimlessly in the arid Southwest, desperate for water. Instead he finds a heap of trouble when he meets a pretty young woman whose face bears the signs of an abusive husband.A MOST ENJOYABLE TALE. Booklist

Starvation Camp

After months of a harsh Yukon winter, a man’s hunger can drive him to desperation, delusion, even murder.

‘Stylish writing.’ Publishers Weekly

‘An unerring eye.’ Kirkus Reviews

The Last Days of Horse-Shy Halloran

Henry W Halloran was better known as Horse Shy Halloran, though few dared to call him that to his person. As he rides towards SanFrancisco, he dreams of rich widows, soft beds, the Barbary Coast nightlife, and Halloran’s Music Hall.

The Hangings

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.

Blue Lonesome

Jim Messenger is a CPA who hates his job, loves jazz, and can’t forget a woman he has seen eating at the Harmony Caf . She goes by the name of Janet Mitchell, and when he introduces himself, her only comment is, ‘It won’t do you any good.’ When she commits suicide, Messenger is driven to find out why. Her name is only the first of the lies he uncovers. In ‘historic Beulah,’ Nevada, secrets coil like rattlesnakes ready to strike, and suffering lies like a suffocating blanket over lives put on hold. Starting with one slender clue, Messenger embarks on a search for the truth that becomes a rite of passage. By the end, lives have been changed, a horrible murder brought to light, and a quiet, little town irrevocably torn apart.

A Wasteland of Strangers

The author of Blue Lonesome, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, has created another stunning novel of suspense. Set in a small, isolated town in Northern California, A Wasteland of Strangers is a fast paced, memorable story about the arrival of a stranger and the murder of a beautiful, lonely woman.

Nothing But the Night

For some people, the night is a cloak, helping them to hide. For others, it’s a bright light, exposing things better left unseen. The lives of Cam Gallagher and Nick Hendryx have taken separate courses; their roads will cross and cross again, with increasing threat, in the nights they begin to share. With perfect pacing and keen psychological insight, Bill Pronzini proves yet again that his ability to weave a novel of suspense is unsurpassed. Distinctive, chilling, and with never a false note, he peels away the layers of his characters’ lives until they finally stand exposed, with Nothing But the Night between them. New, in paperback.

In an Evil Time

Jack Hollis had finally steeled himself for what had to be done, the murder of his daughter Angela’s husband, David Rakubian. Rakubian was vicious, abusive, deadly, and powerful, and everyone Hollis knew and loved wanted to save Angela from him. After his first attempt failed because Rakubian didn’t come home, Hollis put together a foolproof plan. He’d lure Rakubian to his grave with the promise of seeing Angela. It would work: an isolated place, the body easily disposed of, perfect alibis. There was just one problem: The target didn’t show.

And when Hollis went to Rakubian’s house and found his body, he didn’t know who he had to protect. There were too many people among his friends and family who wanted Rakubian dead, and no one was saying a word.

Bill Pronzini, the award-winning author such highly praised thrillers as Nothing But the Night, takes us into the heart and soul of a man pushed to his limits and then beyond them as he fights, first for his daughter and then for his family and his own salvation. With the twists in plot that Pronzini’s fans have come to expect, and the author’s incisive understanding of the motivations that drive us, In an Evil Time is a compelling novel of human need and stunning suspense.

Step to the Graveyard Easy

There is a price to pay for redemption Grabbing the reader with the opening line of Step to the Graveyard Easy, Bill Pronzini shows again why he is considered one of America’s leading masters of suspense. As he did in Blue Lonesome, In an Evil Time, and A Wasteland of Strangers, Pronzini delves into character and motivation without missing a beat of the action as he portrays men and women caught up in events not of their own making. There’s no time to worry about their fears: they deal with the threats they face in the manner of real people, not pawns of a plotline. As many have been before him, Matthew Cape is confronted by the need to make a change, to go where he’s never been, to do things he’s never dared. That means giving up everything he has, starting fresh no matter the cost and no matter who might get hurt. The Corvette is manageable, skydiving is fun, and gambling, well, that has always been a passion. Dealing with grifters like Boone and Tanya Judson, however, is something new, and when they try to cheat Cape in a crooked poker game in San Francisco, he begins to learn lessons that aren’t part of his plan. From the City by the Bay to Lake Tahoe, a trail of deceit finally leads Cape to the peace he seeks, the freedom he wants, and the redemption he needs.

The Alias Man

The women in his life call him The Alias Man. From Santa Fe to Pennsylvania, from Vancouver to San Francisco, he has seduced and charmed, stolen and disappeared, leaving unbearable hurt in his wake. Then his three most recent victims Jessie, Sarah, and Morgan find one another and collectively discover his involvement in an even more profitable and deadly scheme. As they work together to carry out their hunger for justice, each is forced to confront and overcome yet another enemy: her own fears and weaknesses.

In The Alias Man, internationally acclaimed, award winning crime writer Bill Pronzini offers a psychological thriller filled with the hallmark twists, turns, and surprises of his wicked imagination.

The Crimes of Jordan Wise

Jordan Wise is a mild mannered accountant with a large San Francisco
engineering firm in the late 1970s. By his own admission, the first
thirty four years of his life were dull, empty. But that all changes
when he meets and falls in love with Annalise Bonner, an ambitious
young woman who craves excitement, a life on the edge.

With her as the catalyst, Wise concocts and executes a meticulous
plan to steal more than half a million dollars from his firm. They
escape to the Virgin Islands, but their plans to live a life of quiet
luxury are beset by unexpected pitfalls and Wise is forced to
carry out two more ingenious schemes as a result. All three of his
crimes are perfect or are they?
The Crimes of Jordan Wise is a classic tale of love, greed, betrayal,
and violence told with Bill Pronzini’s characteristic twists and
turns and his special brand of suspense. It is also a powerful
psychological examination of a man, a woman, and the wages of sin.

The Other Side of Silence

A scintillating new thriller by one of the masters of the genre, following his Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. When Geena finally left him and filed for divorce, Fallon put the Encino house up for sale and took the last two weeks of his vacation from Unidyne. Then he loaded the Jeep Liberty and drove straight to Death Valley. The desert country had a way of simplifying things. It cleansed your mind, allowed you to think clearly. Allowed you to breathe. The one place he truly belonged. So opens Bill Pronzini’s exciting new thriller. On his third day in the Valley, Rick Fallon comes upon a deserted Toyota Camry, and soon thereafter, the almost dead body of Casey Dunbar. Having rescued her, Fallon soon learns what had driven her to give up on life and, his own life on hold, he resolves to unravel the twisted and dangerous strands of hers, a quest that leads him to the glitter dome of Las Vegas among other locales. The result is a story as dramatic and memorable as anything Pronzini has written, reminiscent of his classics Blue Lonesome and A Wasteland of Strangers. In The Other Side of Silence, Bill Pronzini is indeed a Grand Master.

The Hidden

A series of seemingly random murders along a fifty-mile stretch of the rugged northern California coast, committed by an unknown dubbed by the media 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. A fierce winter storm that leads to a night of unrelenting terror. These are the main ingredients in Bill Pronzini’s chilling and twist-filled tale about The Hidden nature of crime and its motives.

Problems Solved

TWO LEGENDS!!!!!

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. Many fans have heard of them, but very few have had the privilege of reading them until now. 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. The stories range from suspense ‘Night Rider’ to irony ‘What Kind of person Are You?’ to twists in the tale ‘Problems Solved‘ to science fictional detection, including three stories about an unnamed Luna Immigration Inspector. Others emphasize sports ‘What s a Chicago Cub?’ asks an entrepreneur of the future, and one, ‘Another Burnt Out Case,’ is ! in Bill Pronzini s words, ‘a weird comic Hitchcockian crime fantasy with a carnival setting, whose last two lines elicit gleeful chortles from both of us to this day.’

The cover design, illustrating both ‘Another Burnt Out Case’ and ‘Night Rider,’ is by Juha Lindroos, a Finnish artist working in the United States.

On Account of Darkness and Other Stories (With: Barry N. Malzberg)

Bill Pronzini is one of the most highly acclaimed mystery authors writing today. Barry N. Malzberg exploded onto the science fiction scene in the 1970s with incendiary novels and short stories that took the craft of speculative fiction to a completely different level. When these two master authors come together to collaborate on fiction, the result is literary dynamite. On Account of Darkness and Other Stories brings together for the first time every science fiction story that Bill and Barry wrote together during their long careers, featuring a brand new introduction. These short, sharp stories, each a paradigm of the craft of science fiction, are prime examples of two authors working at the height of their collaborative powers, resulting in a collection of truly speculative fiction. Barry N. Malzberg is the author of some forty science fiction novels and collections. Bill Pronzini has been a full time professional writer since 1969. 20021201

Crucifixion River (With: Marcia Muller)

In the Spur Award winning title story, a Pinkerton detective, a couple on the run, a wanted man, and a traveling salesman with mysterious wares all converge on the banks of Crucifixion River to take shelter from an impending storm.

Dago Red

Bill Pronzini invades the Ramble House Sanctuary of Loons with a collection of 22 excursions into the darkest heart of noir. From the perils of familial love in ‘Dago Red‘ to the deadly TV sports of ‘Olaf and the Merchandisers’ Pronzini runs you through a wringer of chills and thrills, with a couple of Nameless Detective stories to keep you grounded. But don’t expect the suspense to let up, because there are dangers lurking in the twenty stories that lie in between, each more menacing than the last. A Ramble House book

The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories

With its roots in the American private detective fiction of the 1920s but traceable back as far as Sherlock Holmes, the private eye story remains as popular as ever. Here are thirty of the finest short novels and stories from the hardboiled world of the private eye. The characters in this collection range from the tough, cynical, hard drinking Philip Marlowe type to hard hitting female sleuths and the one armed intellectual Dan Fortune. This collection features old favorites and new contributions from masters of the genre, past and present, including Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Michael Collins, Ed McBain, William Campbell Gault, and many more.

The Mammoth Book of Short Spy Novels

From award winning editor Bill Pronzini comes The Mammoth Book of Short Spy Novels a classic book updated for spymasters. Thirteen outstanding spy and espionage novellas, complete and unabridged, are gathered here in one terrific volume. They represent a specially chosen collection from the most accomplished writers in the field, including W. Somerset Maugham on Ashenden, his operative in World War I and Ian Fleming on 007 in the Caribbean, as well as Leslie Charteris, Erle Stanley Gardner, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Jakes, among others. These works span more than seventy five years of espionage writing in the United States and England, and feature secret agents, counterspies, and double agents in settings from Japan to the former Eastern Bloc, and from World War I onward.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 4

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5

More than 200,000 words of great crime and suspense fictionEach year, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors of The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, have reached farther past the boundaries of the United States to find the very best suspense from the world over. In this third volume of their series they have included stories from Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom as well as, of course, a number of fine stories from the U.S.A. Among these tales are winners of the Edgar Award, the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers, and other major awards in the field. In addition, here are reports on the field of mystery and crime writing from correspondents in the U.S. Jon L. Breen, England Maxim Jakubowski, Canada Edo Van Belkom, Australia David Honeybone, and Germany Thomas Woertche. Altogether, with nearly 250,000 words of the best short suspense published in 2001, this bounteous volume is, as the Wall Street Journal said of the previous year s compilation, the best value for money of any such anthology. The A to Z of the authors should excite the interest of any mystery reader:Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jon L. Breen Wolfgang Burger Lillian Stewart Carl Margaret Coel Max Allan Collins Bill Crider Jeffery Deaver Brendan DuBois Susanna Gregory Joseph Hansen Carolyn G. Hart Lauren Henderson Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Tatjana Kruse Paul Lascaux Dick Lochte Peter Lovesey Mary Jane Maffini Ed McBain Val McDermid Marcia Muller Joyce Carol Oates Anne Perry Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ruth Rendell S. J. Rozan Billie Rubin Kristine Kathryn Rusch Stephan Rykena David B. Silva Nancy Springer Jac. Toes John Vermeulen Donald E. Westlake Carolyn Wheat.

Great Tales of Mystery and Suspense

Great Tales of Mystery and Suspense 1981. An anthology of stories edited by Martin H Greenberg, Barry N Malzberg and Bill Pronzini. Includes stories by Cornell Woolrich, John. D. MacDonald, Lawrence Treat, William Campbell Gault, Georges Simenon, Francis and Richard Lockridge, Jack Ritchie, Michael Gilbert, Edward D. Hoch, Susan Dunlap, Pronzini with Jeffrey Wallmann and Ed McBain.

The Arbor House Treasury of Detective and Mystery Stories from the Great Pulps

a paperback version with stories by d hammett, f nebel, p cain etc

The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories

The stories by the mystery genre’s best writers, such as Tony Hillerman, Lawrence Block, P. D James, Ruth Rendell and Ray Bradbury, are compiled into an anthology of twenty five of the year’s most suspenseful stories.

Hardboiled

What are the ingredients of a hard boiled detective story? ‘Savagery, style, sophistication, sleuthing and sex,’ said Ellery Queen. Often a desperate blond, a jealous husband, and, of course, a tough but tender P.I. the likes of Sam Spade or Philop Marlowe. Perhaps Raymond Chandler summed it up best in his description of Dashiell Hammett’s style: ‘Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it…
. He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes.’ Hard Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories is the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind, with over half of the stories never published before in book form. Included are thirty six sublimely suspenseful stories that chronicle the evolutiuon of this quintessentially American art form, from its earliest beginnings during the Golden Age of the legendary pulp magazine Black Mask in the 1920s, to the arrival of the tough digest Manhunt in the 1950s, and finally leading up to present day hard boiled stories by such writers as James Ellroy. Here are eight decades worth of the best writing about betrayal, murder, and mayhem: from Hammett’s 1925 tour de force ‘The Scorched Face,’ in which the disappearance of two sisters leads Hammett’s never named detective, the Continental Op, straight into a web of sexual blackmail amidst the West Coast elite, to Ed Gorman’s 1992 ‘The Long Silence After,’ a gripping and powerful rendezvous involving a middle class insurance executive, a Chicago streetwalker, and a loaded . 38. Other delectable contributions include ‘Brush Fire’ by James M. Cain, author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Raymond Chandler’s ‘I’ll Be Waiting,’ where, for once, the femme fatale is not blond but a redhead, a Ross Macdonald mystery starring Macdonald’s most famous creation, the cryptic Lew Archer, and ‘The Screen Test of Mike Hammer’ by the one and only Micky Spillane. The hard boiled cult has more in common with the legendary lawmen of the Wild West than with the gentleman and lady sleuths of traditional drawing room mysteries, and this direct line of descent is on brilliant display in two of the most subtle and tautly written stories in the collection, Elmore Leonard’s ‘3:10 to Yuma’ and John D. MacDonald’s ‘Nor Iron Bars.’ Other contributors include Evan Hunter better known as Ed McBain, Jim Thompson, Helen Nielsen, Margaret Maron, Andrew Vachss, Faye Kellerman, and Lawrence Block. Compellingly and compulsively readable, Hard Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories is a page turner no mystery lover will want to be without. Containing many notable rarities, it celebrates a genre that has profoundly shaped not only American literature and film, but how we see our heroes and oursleves.

Detective Duos

In this marvelous anthology, a real life detective duo Marica Muller and Bill Pronzini, mystery novelists who are also husband and wife have brought together 25 of the best paired puzzle solvers in short stories of remarkable range and scope. From Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to Mr. and Mrs. North, these stories span more than a century of crime fiction.

A Century of Great Suspense Stories

New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver’s enviable task? Choose the best mystery/horror detective stories from a century of work by the world’s most celebrated writers. The result is a triumph, featuring masterpieces of suspense by: Robert Bernard Robert Bloch Lawrence Block Anthony Boucher Frederic Brown James M. Cain Max Allan Collins Jeffery Deaver Stanley Ellin Harlan Ellison Erle Stanley Gardner Ed Gorman Anna Katharine Green Jeremiah Healy Patricia Highsmith Reginald Hill Tony Hillerman Evan Hunter Stephen King John Lutz John D. MacDonald Ross MacDonald Michael Malone Steve Martini Sharyn McCrumb Margaret Millar Marcia Muller Sara Paretsky Bill Pronzini Ellery Queen Ruth Rendell Lisa Scottoline Georges Simenon Mickey Spillane Rex Stout Janwillem van de Wetering Donald E. Westlake

Masters of Horror and the Supernatural

A spellbinding collection of the best stories in the genre of horror and the supernatural. With works by Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Silverberg, H.G Wells and dozens more, this indispensable compilation will show that anything can happen in these tales of unworldly terror and heart stopping horror. A truly definitive volume that will stand the test of time!

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