We're told that there are seven deadly sins; not on the list is the deadliest of them all: Betrayal. For each of the detectives at the agency, a betrayal-personal, against a child, against the elderly-becomes not only the driving force behind an investigation, but the source of the kind of resolve that cannot be derailed by threats of any kind. Tamara's case began as something personal but explodes as her investigation of her former lover Lucas Zeller...

"Cody Hatcher is the kind of teenager you don't want your kids hanging with. That's the book on him and it's why the citizens of Mineral Springs have no problem at all believing that he's guilty of three rapes. His mother, Cheryl, an old lover of Nameless's, is also being harassed by vindictive townspeople. It's against such odds that he must work to prove Cody innocent. There are few to help him and plenty to get in his way. It's a classic situation...

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...

Few 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

...

"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 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 that grew ever higher-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...

The sunbaked expanse of Death Valley is a great place to visit but a bad place to die in this breathtaking thriller from acclaimed master of suspense fiction Bill Pronzini Rick Fallon has reached the breaking point. His wife left after their son's tragic death, and Rick finds himself without purpose. He seeks out the peace and tranquility of the desert, setting up camp in Death Valley. On his fourth day there, Rick comes across an abandoned car. Inside...

A mysterious stranger sparks mistrust and violence in a gripping tale of small-town prejudice, jealousy, and murder from Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Bill Pronzini The arrival of big, ugly John C. Faith in a battered Porsche sends up warning flags throughout the small Northern California resort community of Pomo. No one trusts the stranger who refuses to talk about why he is there. And when a local beauty with questionable morals is found...

30 CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES GOOD TO THE LAST LINE The McGuffin has long been a staple tool in any crime and mystery writer's arsenal. A perfectly placed last line of a short story can pull together subtle plot threads into a devastating dénouement or give everything that came before it a brand-new meaning, sometimes even reshaping the story entirely for the reader. Joe Gores and Bill Pronzini, two of the most talented mystery writers of the 20th...

A haunted woman's suicide pulls a California man into the poisonous secrets of a bleak Nevada desert town in Bill Pronzini's masterful work of noir fiction. There is something about the sad woman eating alone night after night at the Harmony Café that intrigues San Francisco CPA Jim Messenger. Unfulfilled himself, Jim feels a kinship with her - and later, when she commits suicide, he resolves to find out why. His search leads him to Beulah, a middle-of-nowhere...