Bill Pronzini

A Wasteland of Strangers

Bill Pronzini

• 1998 Barry-Novel nominee
• 1998 Edgar–Novel nominee
• 1997 Hammett nominee
• Score: 18.48

Set in an isolated town in Northern California, A Wasteland of Strangers begins with the arrival of John Faith in Pomo. Who is he? Why has he come here now, during the off-season when there is nothing to do but get into trouble? What is it he wants? Everyone has an opinion of him, and only a few of them are favorable. For everyone he helps, there are two who question his motives, who see danger to themselves and their way of life in his continual presence in their town. And then, when a beautiful, lonely woman is brutally slaughtered after spending time…

Boobytrap: A “Nameless Detective” Novel

Bill Pronzini

• 1999 Shamus-Novel winner
• Score: 10.49

Emotionally exhausted from the events surrounding his partner’s suicide, “Nameless” welcomes the chance for a quiet vacation that comes when San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Patrick Dixon proposes that the burnt-out detective drive Dixon’s wife and son to their summer cottage on a remote High Sierra lake. In exchange, “Nameless” will have a week’s free use of a neighboring cabin.

The same week, unknown to both the assistant D.A. and “Nameless,” also among the vacationers at Deep Mountain Lake is a recently paroled explosives expert, Donald Michael…

Son of Gun in Cheek

Bill Pronzini

• 1988 Macavity-Nonfiction winner
• Score: 10.38

1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction

Bill Pronzini, Marcia Muller

• 1987 Macavity-Nonfiction winner
• Score: 10.37

Mystery readers everywhere will dellight in this compendium of their favorite literature.

Hoodwink: A “Nameless Detective” Novel

Bill Pronzini

• 1982 Shamus-Novel winner
• Score: 10.32

The Crimes of Jordan Wise: A Novel

Bill Pronzini

• 2006 Hammett nominee
• Score: 6.56

Jordan Wise is a mild-mannered accountant with a large San Francisco engineering firm in the late 1970s. His dull, empty life is transformed when he meets and falls in love with Annalise Bonner, an ambitious young woman who craves excitement, a life on the edge. With Annalise as the catalyst, Wise concocts and executes a meticulous plan to steal more than half a million dollars from his firm. Their escape to the Virgin Islands is 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?

Sentinels: A “Nameless Detective” Novel

Bill Pronzini

• 1997 Shamus-Novel nominee
• Score: 6.47

Led by circumstances to accept the kind of case he dislikes—a “worried mother job”—”Nameless” reluctantly agrees to investigate the strange disappearance of college student Allison McDowell and her mysterious new boyfriend while on a driving strip from Oregon to San Francisco. The young couple vanished suddenly and without a trace after their car broke down and they were forced to spend a night in the tiny village of Creekside, in the remote Northwestern corner of California.

When “Nameless” travels to Creekside and begins to question the locals, he…

Blue Lonesome

Bill Pronzini

• 1996 Anthony-Novel nominee
• Score: 6.46

Jim Messenger is a CPA who hates his job, loves jazz, and can’t forget a woman he has seen eating at the Harmony Café. 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…