Bill Pronzini Mysteries

Pronzini makes people and events so real that you are living those explosive days of terror. An empty train yard at midnight...a small cabin bathed in the light of a full moon...a seedy Skid Row hotel in San Francisco...These are the places where fear lives, where the chill in the air has nothing to do with the temperature, and where Death can be someone youve already met. Collected here for the first time are twenty-six terrifying stories by Bill Pronzini, a master of dark suspense and horror. These chilling stories span nearly three decades in his award-winning career, and most have never been published in book form. Prepare yourself now for an unforgettable gift, a very special deliver of...night freight.

The West Coast crime cartel known as "the Organization" has been beset by a series of problems: members are being murdered and merchandise hijacked. In walks troubleshooter Flagg, whose methods are those of a sharp-witted detective rather than a criminal. Soon he lays bare a plot behind the Organization's front--and now everyone is in danger.

It was fifteen years ago when the big, sort-of-sloppy, brew-loving P.I. appeared on the scene, dazzling readers with keen solutions to seemingly unsolvable crimes. And just as his disheveled demeanor gave no hint of the brilliant mind that lay behind it, his lack of a moniker said nothing about his rising popularity with mystery readers everywhere.Nameless opens up his files on some of his most fascinating cases. Collected here are ten stories and two novelettes, giving Nameless fans a page-turning potpourri of his toughest and most dangerous adventures. CASEFILE holds his greatest hits - a 122 pack to be popped open and enjoyed on an off-duty afternoon. So sit back and spend some time with one of America's favorite (and most likeable) P.I's, who has caught more criminals - and imaginations - than any other gumshoe in recent American Fiction.

In this collection of 23 short stories, Bill Pronzini, prolific, award-winning west-coast mystery writer and creator of the well-known "Nameless Detective" series, the author's style and versatility truly shine. These tales including three that feature his well-known series character, the "Nameless Detective" run the gamut from psychological suspense ("Strangers in the Fog") to satire ("A Craving for Originality") to Western gothic ("The Hanging Man" and "His Name was Legion"). Of special note, "Proof of Guilt" is a dandy murder-in-a-locked-room puzzle; "Multiples" (written with Barry N. Malzberg) is an intriguing literary exercise about a man who can't decide whether to kill his wife or simply write about it; "Rebound" is a solid character piece about a washed-up reporter stalking a once-great basketball player; and "Peekaboo," about the lone tenant in a large, eerie house, has an ending guaranteed to deliver the shivers.

More Oddments features fourteen more detective stories featuring characters such as Fergus O'Hara and the "Nameless" Detective. The stories included in this collection are:Fergus O'Hara, DetectiveChipOpportunityA Craving for OriginalityOne of Those Cases (A "Nameless Detective" Story)I Didn't Do ItQuicker Than the Eye (with Michael Kurland)Angel of MercyConnoisseurMrs. RakubianSmuggler's IslandA Taste of ParadiseUnder the SkinProse Bowl (with Barry N. Malzberg)

This is a collection of fifty short stories by veteran mystery and crime writer Bill Pronzini, best known as fhe creator of 'The Nameless Detective' series. This collection crosses over a broad range of styles and characters, settings and plots, showing the breadth and depth of Pronzini's prodigious talent. Included are murders, swindles, double-crosses, crazed children, and much, much more. Contents include:A Cold Foggy Day / A Dip in the Poole / Something Wrong (A "Nameless Detective" Story) / The Imperfect Crime / Shell Game with Jeffrey M. Wallmann) / Sweet Fever / Perfect Timing / Dear Poisoner / Thirst / Skeletons / The Same Old Grind / His Name Was Legion / The Dispatching of George Ferris / Little Lamb / Once a Thief (with Jeffrey M. Wallmann) / Under the Skin / Changes / The Storm Tunnel / Defect / The Clincher / The Facsimile Shop (with Jeffrey M. Wallmann) / Waiting, Waiting... / Peekaboo / Words Do Not A Book Make / Incident in a Neighborhood Tavern (A "Nameless Detective" Story) / The Terrarium / On Guard! (with Michael Kurland) / Memento Mori / A Little Larceny / Mrs. Rakubian / Toy / House Call (with Jeffrey M. / Wallmann) / Deathwatch / Outrageous / Muggers' Moon / Hero (A Tale of the Old West) / The Man Who Collected "The Shadow" / For Love / Unchained / Tiger, Tiger (with John Lutz) / Here Lies Another Blackmailer / Buttermilk / Retirement / One of Those Days / Don't Spend It All in One Place / Cache and Carry (A "Nameless Detective"/Sharon McCone Story, with Marcia Muller) / The Killing / Black Wind / A Case for Quiet (with Jeffrey M. Wallmann) / Whodunit

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.

A Shamus Award-winning AuthorFew characters have the loyal readership of Bill Pronzini's "Nameless Detective." The fourteen stories in this collection span his entire thirty-five-year life on the printed page. They include "It's a Lousy World," where Nameless proves that a friend did not commit the crime he was accused of; "Dead Man's Slough" and "The Ghosts of Ragged-Ass Gulch," which take him out of San Francisco into the hinterlands; and "Souls Burning," where he tries to help an old friend make one last try at setting things right.

Plump, nondescript Theodore Conway works as a file clerk in a Manhattan law firm. His passion is collecting memorabilia related to the pulp-fiction heroes of his youth, especially The Shadow. Then one day this quiet little man learns that he, too, has the supernatural power "to cloud men's minds" and fight crime under the cloak of invisibility. "The Man Who Collected The Shadow" is just one of 14 stories in this collection of short fiction by the versatile Pronzini, author of the "Nameless" detective series as well as westerns, science fiction, and stand-alone crime novels. Among the other highlights here are "Shade Work," in which a con man picks the wrong marks; "The Arrowment Prison Riddle," a locked-room puzzler that is solved by a pulp-fiction writer; and "Bank Job, which illustrates why it's sometimes better to be lucky--and quick on your feet--than good. Pronzini's work is consistently entertaining, and these "oddments" are no exception.

For over thirty years, Bill Pronzini has created fictional sleuths. The most famous dubbed the "Nameless Detective" appeared in twenty-five novels. But there are many others like Fergus O'Hara who, with his wife Hattie, plies his trade at the time of Civil War; John Quincannon and Sabina Carpenter, a mismatched pair who operate a detective agency in 1890s San Francisco; Christopher Steele the magician who specializes in solving impossible crimes, and so many more. Each of these colorful characters is represented in this detective's round table - a must read for mystery lovers.