Bill Pronzini

Two novellas and two short stories featuring Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Bill Pronzini's iconic Nameless Detective! Zigzag is an original novella, in which a safe and simple accident investigation becomes the unraveling of a twisted murder scheme. Grapplin, which first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, deals with the kind of missing person case that can end in only one of two ways, closure or heartbreak. In the second short,...

In Echo Park, in the small town of Santa Rita, California, the mutilated body of Martin Torrey is found by two passersby. A registered sex offender, Torrey has been a suspect in a string of recent rapes, and instant suspicion for his murder falls on the relatives and friends of the women attacked. Police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are under increasing pressure from the public and from a mayor demanding results in a case that has...

"Despite the fact that his wedding is right around the corner, John Quincannon takes on what may be his riskiest assignment: going undercover into a gold mine to ferret out a gang hijacking high-grade ore before it reaches the surface ... John discovers the clever methods by which the scheme is being worked and exposes the conspirators ... following him leads to an unexpected rendezvous with Sabina, who has uncovered vital information about the thief's...

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 is is 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 is not his wife. Then he disappears and his fiancee...

When his wife goes missing from their Sierra foothills cabin after spotting a suspicious man, the Nameless Detective and his associate, Jake Runyon, launch a search and rescue mission that stretches legal boundaries.

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.

Cody Hatcher is the kind of teenager you don't want your kids hanging with. That's why the citizens of Mineral Springs have no problem believing that he's guilty of three rapes. His mother, Cheryl, an old lover of the Nameless Detective, is being harassed by vindictive townspeople. With few to help him and plenty to get in his way, Nameless must work to prove Cody innocent. It's a classic situation for an iconic private investigator.

Former pulp writer and current hack Russell Dancer invites Nameless to the first annual Western Pulp Convention in San Francisco. He wants Nameless to help him locate the person who is trying to blackmail Dancer for a purported plagiarism of a story called "Hoodwink." Arriving at the convention, Nameless discovers that a group of former friends (and now uncomfortable colleagues) who wrote for the pulps called the "Pulpeteers" have all received blackmail...

Carpenter and Quincannon Professional Detective Services is a fixture in San Francisco at the dawn of a new century. Sabina and John will protect their clients, doing what is necessary to run the dregs of society into the arms of the law. Sometimes that involves brute force. Other times, a more subtle touch is needed. Professor A. Vargas, medium extraordinaire, and his partner, Annabelle, don't use picks to open locked doors, and most certainly don't...