Resultados de "Bill Pronzini" en Todas las categorias

This is a "Nameless Detective" mystery story that starts with the thefts of several exotic animals from San Francisco's Fleishhacker Zoo - and ends with murder.

A "botched" hit and blackmail turn to revenge and betrayal in this gripping mystery by a master mystery writer.

Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services is a fixture in San Francisco at the dawn of a new century. While the future is unclear, Sabina and John know one thing for certain: they will protect their clients from flimflammers, thieves, and murderers, and do whatever it takes to run these dregs of society into the arms of the law. Sometimes, that requires a subtle touch. Professor A. Vargas, self-styled medium extraordinaire, and his partner Annabelle, use guile and trickery to swindle bereaved men and women eager to contact the spirits of deceased loved ones.

Not all the folks who roamed the Old West were cowhands, rustlers, or cardsharps. And they certainly weren't all heroes. Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He's a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything -or anyone - could be the fuse to ignite them.

A con man always has a bag of tricks, ready to fool the unsuspecting, and almost everyone is unsuspecting until they get taken. When that happens, they turn to Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, to recover their money and what’s left of their dignity, and perhaps even to save their lives.

When a pleasant afternoon's bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention. The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist's first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker's real problem is something he doesn't want to reveal.

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 no easy solution.

Can the true identity of the Sherlock Holmes imposter be revealed at last? Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon are no stranger to mysteries. In the five years since they opened Carpenter and Quinncannon, Professional Detective Services, they have solved dozens, but one has eluded even them: Sherlock Holmes or, rather, the madman claiming his identity who keeps showing up with a frustrating - though admittedly useful - knack for solving difficult cases.

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.

More Oddments features 14 more detective stories featuring characters such as Fergus O'Hara and the "Nameless" Detective. The stories included in this collection are: "Fergus O'Hara, Detective", "Chip", "Opportunity", "A Craving for Originality", "One of Those Cases (A "Nameless Detective" Story)", "I Didn't Do It", "Quicker Than the Eye (with Michael Kurland)", "Angel of Mercy", "Connoisseur", "Mrs. Rakubian", "Smuggler's Island", "A Taste of Paradise", "Under the Skin", and "Prose Bowl (with Barry N. Malzberg)".

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.

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 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

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...

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.

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.

A debutante's missing body, murder most foul, and weird spectrallights in the fog make for a thrilling gas light-era tale of mystery and detection. In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light.

Intrigue, crime, and murder create suspense in this edge-of-your-seat collection of cat mystery stories whose plots are all centered on a beloved feline, written by some of the finest, best-selling mystery writers of all time.

Deadly Anniversaries celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Mystery Writers of America with a collection of stories from some of the top names in crime fiction. An anniversary can honor many things: a birth, a wedding and sometimes even a death. In Deadly Anniversaries, editors Marcia Muller and...