Bøger af Bill Pronzini

He is ruthless and amoral, and he feels nothing but fury and a burning desire for revenge upon "Nameless," the man he believes is responsible for ruining his life. So he plots a horrible, lingering death for his victim.One night, "Nameless" is abducted by his unknown enemy, taken to a mountain cabin, chained to a wall, and left there to die once the scanty provisions left for him run out. In the icy whiteness of dead winter, "Nameless" has nothing to do but search his memory. Who is his captor? When did their paths cross? And what could he have done to warrant such revenge? Perhaps the answer lies in one of the secondhand paperbacks or magazines provided for his "comfort" or perhaps there is some significance in the date he was kidnapped or...His isolated captivity is a nightmare, and he must take each day as it comes just in order to keep his sanity. There is but one thought that keeps him going-a vow that somehow he will escape. There must be something-one small detail-his jailor overlooked...Once free of the physical shackles that bound his body, "Nameless" must remove the emotional shackles that have closed upon his mind. He sets out on a quest to find his captor. Now, the roles are reversed and the hunted becomes the hunter...

"For a mystery, Dead Run will be hard to beat" -The New York Times Book Review Traveling by ship from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Dan Connell discovers he is being pursued by ruthless killers.

"Pronzini is a pro." -The New York Times A freelance charter pilot on uneasy terms with the police but greatly respected by the underworld, Dan Connell turns down a bundle of cash to smuggle a jade carving of a bird out of Singapore-which doesn't make the thieves or the authorities happy. When an old cohort is killed, Connell discovers that only by finding the bird can he avoid his own murder.

The "nameless" San Francisco detective and his partner Eberhardt are trying to prove that their client Thomas Lujack did not mow down his business partner with his car. Although he suspects his client's guilt early on, the 58-year-old gumshoe spends three weeks looking for flaws in the testimony of the hit-and-run's sole witness. Then Lujack is found murdered, the witness disappears, and the detective, instead of being asked to step up his investigation, is discharged by the victim's brother Coleman. In full moral outrage, the veteran detective bulldogs his way through the case, uncovering evidence about the brothers' employment of illegal immigrants.

Bill Pronzini's "Nameless Detective"-the San Francisco-based, Italian-American, slightly overweight, thoroughly charming favorite of mystery aficionados, whose name is never revealed-returns with one of his cleverest, most intense cases.Why would a successful, good-looking young man, who had just won two hundred thousand dollars at a Lake Tahoe casino, kill himself? That's the question Nameless asks himself when he finds a friend's brother dead--an apparent suicide, was more than luck involved in his windfall? Or was his good fortune reason enough for murder?The investigation takes Nameless inside the seamy and dangerous world of high-stakes gambling and mob-run casinos-and into the middle of a complex scam that has left at least one man in his grave, with others, including Nameless, odds-on favorites to follow.

In Deadfall Bill Pronzini's popular "Nameless Detective" returns in his most baffling-and harrowing-case to date. While staked out on a routine car repossession, Nameless all but witnesses the shooting of a San Francisco lawyer, Leonard Purcell. He arrives on the scene in time to hear Purcell's dying words, one of which is "deadfall." But Purcell dies in Nameless's arms before the cryptic word can be explained.The mystery deepens when Nameless discovers that Leonard's brother, Kenneth, fell to his death six months earlier. Is Purcell's death linked to the apparent accidental "deadfall" of his brother? Leonard's housemate thinks so, and he hires Nameless to prove it.The detective's search takes him into a labyrinth of bizarre relationships involving Kenneth's promiscuous widow, his unattractive daughter, her drug-addicted boyfriend, a shrewd society matron with a passion for antique snuff bottles, a bisexual Filipino, and a missing Mexican deliveryman. Before Nameless can learn the truth behind the demise of the Purcell brothers, the case takes a number of turns that leave his own life hanging in the balance.

He's just gotten some bad news, and its impact has made him immobile and fearful. He's always known that the racking cough was not just something that was going to go away, that the ache in his chest was indicative of something more serious. And now he's found out that he has a lesion on his lung which could be malignant. He's set to sit and wait and do nothing else until he gets the results, but is swayed into action by a call from an old buddy of his from the service, Harry Burroughs.Harry has an isolated fishing camp in Northern California. Currently, he has several people in residence. Recent events have convinced him that the place is a powder keg waiting to erupt into violence. Therefore, the call to Nameless. What Nameless finds on his arrival is a simmering situation, mostly caused by the presence of a very erotic woman by the name of Angela who is there with her extremely jealous husband, Ray, who is even more combustible because he's a heavy drinker. Angela is a woman who plays sweet but gets deep underneath a man's skin and is nowhere near as innocent as she would have folks believe.And then the murders start. The first doesn't seem to have anything to do with the situation when a rug dealer is killed in his van. But then the inhabitants of the camp become targets, including Nameless. He faces more than the usual share of danger as he is entombed in a cave. The book has a little bit of everything-sexual intrigue, theft, murder, violence-all leavened by Nameless searching for the truth in a high tension environment.

The world's first two-author, husband-and-wife short story collection.Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini are two of the world's most popular and respected mystery authors. Their new collection demonstrates why this team has so many fans.Here you'll find Muller's famous Sharon McCone searching for the dark truth in "Somewhere in the City." Pronzini's long-heralded private eye Nameless is tracking down a clever killer in "Home is th]235:235e Place Where." McCone and Nameless team up in the wry "Cache and Carry." Fourteen great stories in all.Praise for Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini"Muller remains the best."-San Diego Tribune"(Pronzini's) 'Nameless' has become a national treasure."-Booklist

"The bitterest of woes is to remember old happy days." At least that's what old man Pietro Lombardi thinks. He's got la miseria and can't even play a peaceful round of Sunday bocce with his friends at Aquatic Park. That is, until he sees the "Nameless Detective" at an opposite bench-another romantic taking in what's left of the Italian-American essence of the neighborhood. A shared burden being a lesser load, Pietro enlists his paesan's help with a troubling family matter. It seems his granddaughter, Gianna, is being harassed and needs some looking after. For old time's sake, Nameless agrees to check things out.Nameless quickly finds that Gianna is in hotter water than Pietro can imagine. The smarmy landlord who was hassling her is now black-and-blue and apologetic, her roommate is a little more than friendly in a very cheap sort of way, and Gianna is nowhere to be found. Even though his instincts tell him to leave well enough alone, Nameless searches for Pietro's "beauty of beauties" in the muck of a lascivious underworld full of loudmouthed liars, sleazy pornographers, and cold-blooded killers. After uncovering the horrific truth about Gianna, Nameless is far out of his depth. His investigative tracks have been spotted and leave him vulnerable to the wrath of Gianna's tormentors. Not only is Nameless a witness to the seedy behavior of the group, he has been reeled into a trap. In the end it's all Nameless can do to ensure that his epitaph will not be among those that are popping up around him.

BEDROCK FEAR Grady Haas is a woman possessed, driven by panic, numbed by shock. What happened to her? And is this a case for the "Nameless Detective" or a psychiatrist? Reluctantly, "Nameless" answers her father's desperate summons and agrees to find out what she's running from. Grady herself is untouchable, silent as the grave. ALIVE AND RUNNING A skeptical "Nameless" probes the young woman's past, looking for clues to a broken heart. But soon he becomes the quarry as he follows the shocking trail of blood and manipulation... and unwittingly leads a sadistic killer to his prey. Armed with only a few slender clues and his own darkest impulses, "Nameless" must flush out the psychopath before he drives them all to the jagged edge... Praise for The Nameless Detective "ACTION-PACKED, BRISK, EFFICIENT.... NAMELESS MAY LACK A MONIKER BUT HE'S FULL OF CHARACTER." -Publishers Weekly (Quarry) "PRONZINI MANAGES A DIFFICULT FEAT IN QUARRY: MAKING THE TENSION OF A MISSING PERSON CASE WORK WITHOUT THE PERSON ACTUALLY BEING MISSING!" -Booklist (Quarry)

"Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror." -Robert Ludlum Steve Giroux, visiting New Orleans to forget his recently-ended marriage, is caught in a bizarre web of accusation and imaginary crimes, from which only the help of a remarkable woman can extricate him. "Pronzini is the master of the shivery, spine-tingling it-could-happen suspense story." -Publishers Weekly "Pronzini is a pro." -The New York Times

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?

The Nameless detective is hired by a young wife to find out whether her husband has been having an affair. He trails the husband to a motel of cabins in a small village, sees him meet with a bald man and then return to his cabin. Hours later, Nameless realizes the cabin may have a backdoor; he investigates and finds the husband has been murdered!

Secret Service agent John Quincannon has found little joy in his life since the day his stray bullet killed an innocent young woman and her unborn child. Still in mourning a year later, Quincannon seeks his solace at the bottom of a jug of sour mash. But he'll have to buck up-and sober up-for his next mission: The Service needs him to bring down a major counterfeiting ring responsible for the death of one of his colleagues. And staying sober won't be easy when there's a young lady in town who's a dead ringer for his late victim...A new novel of frontier justice from the award-winning author acclaimed for his "stylish writing" (Publishers Weekly) and "unerring eye" (Kirkus Reviews).

The "Nameless Detective" and Sharon McCone join forces at a San Diego private detective convention in a posh seaside hotel to investigate a case involving multiple murder, a crime ring dealing in smuggled fugitives, and bizarre, kinky lifestyles. For Sharon it's a chance to catch up with old friends-all except for the one who fell four stories from one of the hotel spires. Now, Sharon is determined to find out why her friend died.

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 Fiancée. He had his debts paid, money in the bank, and a happy new life ahead of him. Then he disappeared.

Things are heating up in Big Coulee. Unorthodox road agent Horse-shy Halloran, who got his name because horses always do him dirt, has been seen in town buying women's clothing. The gold miners' association is about to ship $70,000 of gold dust. The brutal and fearsome Burgoyne brothers are in the neighborhood. And Wells Fargo agent Samuel Quarternight has fallen in love with the banker's daughter, Faye. Halloran just wants to make off with the gold, but he gets far more deeply involved with this cast than he'd like and becomes an unwilling and thoroughly despised hero. "A skilled writer working at the top of his ability." -Denver Post

"A skilled writer working at the top of his ability."-Denver Post In his first chronicled adventure, the Nameless detective hires on to handle the ransom payoff in a kidnapping case. Financier Louis Martinetti doesn't trust the police to deal with the man who snatched his 9-year-old son from his military prep school, nor is it clear that he trusts the members of his own household. On the appointed evening, Nameless takes a briefcase that contains $300,000 in cash to a secluded location chosen by the kidnapper. Then all hell breaks loose.

A new thriller in the tradition of Pronzini's Snowbound, "a shivery, spine- tingling it-could-happen suspense story... a real rouser." -Publishers WeeklyThe rich and powerful Jackman family had always had an obsession with successful gamesmanship-whether in the parlor, the bedroom, or in national politics. When Senator David Jackman plans an escape from Washington pressures through a long, idyllic weekend with his lover on the family's lavish island estate, he has no reason to suspect that he will leave buried there forever the man he had become.No sooner do Jackman and Tracy arrive than the evidence begins to mount that they are not alone on the island. The threat quickly becomes dramatically real and the couple are soon running for their lives. Jackman knows the island well from his boyhood summers there and instinctively resorts to superb gamesmanship in eluding the pursuers-until Tracy is captured in a scene guaranteed to send chills up the reader's spine.It is a deadly and terrifying "game" that then begins in earnest, full of subtle clues that are as tantalizing and challenging as they are threatening.Trapped, exhausted, apparently doomed-truly defeated for the first time in his life-Jackman undergoes a catharsis and a revelation which change both his personality and his fate. He will play one final game, and with grim confidence he brilliantly plans and executes a turnabout on his tormentors which leads to a truly thrilling and action-packed triumph. "Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror."-Robert Ludlum"Pronzini is a pro."-The New York Times

"Pronzini is a pro."-The New York Times When Great Western Insurance hires the Nameless Detective to investigate an accidental death in a small northern California town, it looks like a routine case-one he expects to solve swiftly so he and his lady friend, Kerry Wade, can take a much needed vacation. But no such luck. Nameless lands in the middle of a violent conflict between a group of greedy land developers and the handful of citizens who inhabit an isolated Gold Rush ghost town. The triumverate of successful realtors plan to "renovate" Musket Creek (nee Ragged-Ass Gulch), and bring back its glory days as a Gold Rush boomtown-this time in the guise of a "theme-style" amusement park.The town denizens have different ideas. Stark, desolate, crumbling-this isd ouble-dealing, arson, and murder. It's a classic showdown-with death thrown in as the twist.The twelfth installment in the thrilling Nameless Detective series.

A weekend fling turns into a week-long manhunt as the Nameless Detective's last solo case involves him in a cat and mouse chase through San Francisco's Japantown that ends in a confusion of murder, rape, and suicide.It is Friday, and on Monday, Nameless will grudgingly welcome Eberhardt, a retired cop and old friend, into his detective agency. The weekend should give him just enough time to wrap up the little mystery of Haruko Gage's secret admirer who sends her expensive jewels, but doesn't sign his name. With Gage, a domineering designer, as a client, Nameless figures a little light work will bring him a little extra cash. But instead of uncovering a mopey lover, Nameless stumbles on a violent ritual murder and finds himself enmeshed in a bizarre case of confused identity and perverse kidnapping whose roots stem from the Tule Lake Relocation Center-one of the World War II camps for Japanese-Americans-and a long buried secret that would never have happened if a different crime against 100,000 people hadn't been committed in 1942.While Eberhardt is pressing Nameless to set up shop, a kingpin in the Yakuza-the "Japanese Mafia"-is brutally butchered in his bathhouse, a rancher is killed in a hit- and-run accident, and a masoleum is burglarized and filled with fresh-cut roses.The best clue Nameless has is a grainy black-and-white photo of three young Japanese men standing in front of a wire-mesh fence. To unmask the killer, Nameless must unravel a web of guilt and intrigue that spans many lives and forty years.

Broke and fleeing his shattered marriage, Jack Lennox takes a bus towards the southwestern desert. He takes work with Al Perrins, only to see two well-dressed men murder Perrins the following morning. But they see Lennox, and he becomes both hunter and hunted. A novel of suspense by the author of The Snatch.

His P.I. license reinstated, his old friend Eberhardt back on his feet, and things with his girlfriend Kerry patched up, Nameless is ready to roll again. On his first day back at work, he lands an assignment he would have thought went out with the Great Depression: tracking down a hobo.It's hard to imagine the prim Miss Arlene Bradford wanting to find a father thought to be living the life of a bindlestiff-riding the rails, sleeping in boxcars, eating mulligan stew. Nameless is even more surprised, though, when her pouty, Marilyn Monroe-like sister, Hannah, implores him to leave her father alone. Still, he's getting paid to find Charles Bradford, and Nameless follows his trail through the labyrinth of the Western Pacific hobo jungle straight to a tiny railway museum on the far side of town... a museum run by a man named Dallmeyer whose true identity is more sinister than it seems. "Pronzini is a pro."-The New York Times

It's a lazy mid-August Sunday afternoon. The "Nameless Detective" and his old friend Lieutenant Eberhardt are relaxing on the patio, drinking beer and shooting the breeze, when the doorbell rings. As Eberhardt answers the door, Nameless hears two sharp echoing reports-gunshots; they could only be gunshots. Rushing into the house, Nameless glimpses the bloody body of his friend sprawled on the floor-just before he feels a bullet strike his own chest. While Eberhardt lies in a coma, Nameless is released from the hospital and hits the San Francisco streets, determined to track down the gunman. Facing the toughest case of his career, Nameless doggedly pursues the secret behind his friend's shooting-only to find himself plunged into an action-packed intrigue involving murder, bribery, violence, and the forces of organized crime in San Francisco's Chinatown. The inimitable Nameless Detective, an overweight private eye of Italian descent with a penchant for pulp magazines, is in top form in this gripping, fast-paced tale. "Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror." -Robert Ludlum "Pronzini is a pro." -The New York Times

Men who participated in a never solved robbery of an armored truck are being picked off one-by-one 11 years after the crime. "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 "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

Business is booming for Nameless; he's started in on three new cases in one week. But every single one of them turns bad some way. In the first, a husband disappears from a car that Nameless has been following. In the second, a woman is mysteriously murdered while Nameless stands outside her bungalow. In the third, a valuable ring disappears from a locked room that Nameless has been guarding. The papers are full of bad publicity. After being at the scene of two homicides, everyone is suspicious of him. He is at risk of losing his PI license. At the same time, he recently proposed to the woman of his dreams and she is becoming more distant from him every day. Scattershot presents more questions than answers in its exciting conclusion. The eighth novel in the Nameless Detective series.

Set in San Francisco and environs during the Civil War, it introduces Fergus O'Hara, the most roguish new detective in years, and his equally-engaging wife Hattie. Their first case is a complicated and wacky one. Among other people, places and things, it involves a corpulent financial speculator named Horace T. Goatleg, an insane parrot, a one-eyed man addicted to hoarhound drops, a suave gambler addicted to women, a boisterous Irish militia company known as the Mulrooney Guards, the San Francisco Volunteer Fire Department, a keg of beer, a careless footpad, the crew of the riverboat Freebooty, the Freebooty herself, two murders, a gold robbery, several assorted chases, what may literally be termed a bang-up finale on St. Patrick's Day morning, and, for good measure, a couple of bonus surprises.

"Pronzini is a master of suspense." -Los Angeles Times Another nightmarish tale from the author of Breakdown. When the blizzard hit and the avalanche that followed cut them off, the 75 hardy residents of a small resort village in the Sierra Nevadas quietly prepared for a Christmas in isolation. But three desperate professional killers were trapped with them... "Pronzini is the master of the shivery, spine-tingling it-could-happen suspense story." -Publishers Weekly

In a story of ordinary people trapped in extraordinary and deadly circumstances, two friends are faced with the possibility that someone they know well-for reasons they cannot fathom-is plotting to destroy them and everyone they love.

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 notes. Nameless is in seventh heaven as he meets many of his favorite pulp writers, buys pulp novels for his collection and meets a stunning younger woman who is the daughter of two famous pulp writers. For once, Nameless has some luck with the ladies. But is Kerry Wade attracted to him, or to his job as a private eye? Is he really attracted to her, or to her connection to the pulps? The convention is unexpectedly disrupted when one of the guests is found dead in a locked room while Russell Dancer is holding a gun that's been recently fired. It looks like an obvious case of murder by Dancer, who has been feuding with the man. Dancer denies his guilt, and only Nameless is willing to believe him. As Nameless tracks down the guilty party, he finds himself faced with a second locked room mystery... and a target for a murderer.