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This page lists novels that feature the (originally) unnamed San Francisco private investigator who became known as the Nameless Detective.

The Snatch

Bill Pronzini

1971

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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 apointed evening, Nameless takes a briefcase that contains $300,000 in cash to a secluded loaction chosen by the kidnapper. Then all hell breaks loose."

The Vanished

Bill Pronzini

1973

A Nameless Detective novel.

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

Undercurrent

Bill Pronzini

1973

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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!"

Blowback

Bill Pronzini

1977

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Twospot

Bill Pronzini and Collin Wilcox

1978

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Bill Pronzini's "Nameless" private eye and Collin Wilcox's Lieutenant Frank Hastings join forces to solve a grizzly case of murder and to crack a bizarre conspiracy surrounding an old California winemaking family. When "Nameless" is hired by Alex Cappellani, whose family owns the Cappellani Winery in the Napa Valley, it seems at first to be a routine investigation. But then the case veers in a deadly direction: there's a brutal murder in San Francisco. And Lieutenant Hastings is called in to investigate. As "Nameless" and Hastings delve deeper into the web of violence and mystery, the truth begins to unfold."

Labyrinth

Bill Pronzini

1980

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Nameless is called in by his friend, police lieutenant Eberhardt, when a dead woman's purse contains Nameless's business card. Nameless has never met her, and cannot make a connection. Next, Nameless is hired to track and protect a disturbed man, Martin Talbot, who may be harmed by the husband of a woman who died when Talbot's car collided with theirs after Talbot fell asleep at the wheel."

Hoodwink

Bill Pronzini

1981

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Scattershot

Bill Pronzini

1982

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Dragonfire

Bill Pronzini

1982

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Bindlestiff

Bill Pronzini

1983

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Case File

Bill Pronzini

1983

A Nameless Detective short story collection.

"From his first recorded case to his latest escapade, here are ten stories and two novelettes representing the best of the Nameless Detective's short adventures."

• It's a Lousy World
• Death of a Nobody
• One of Those Cases
• Sin Island
• Private Eye Blues
• The Pulp Connection
• Where Have You Gone Sam Spade?
• Dead Man's Slough
• Who's Calling?
• Booktaker

Quicksilver

Bill Pronzini

1984

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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. .... a kingpin in the Yakuza is brutally butchered in his bathhouse, a rancher is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and a mausoleum 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."

Nightshades

Bill Pronzini

1984

A Nameless Detective novel.

"When Great Western Insurance hires the Nameless Detective to investigate an accidental death in a small northern California town he 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 is double-dealing, arson, and murder. It's a classic showdown - with death thrown in as the twist."

Double

Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller

1984

A Nameless Detective and Sharon McCone novel.

"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."

Bones

Bill Pronzini

1985

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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?"

Deadfall

Bill Pronzini

1986

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Shackles

Bill Pronzini

1988

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Jackpot

Bill Pronzini

1990

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Breakdown

Bill Pronzini

1991

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Quarry

Bill Pronzini

1992

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Epitaphs

Bill Pronzini

1992

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Pietro's 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 dept."

Demons

Bill Pronzini

1993

A Nameless Detective novel.

"After all, it seems like a simple matter: Find out just who Nedra is so Kay can confront her in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage. But Nameless soon discovers that there is much more at stake than a simple affair. Nedra is a modern-day Circe who attracts men who become obsessed with her, in some cases dangerously so. Victor Runyon is the latest in a long line; others whose paths Nameless crosses include a violent ex-convict, Nedra's jealous ex-husband, and a powerful San Francisco politician. Victor's obsession with Nedra takes a bizarre twist when she suddenly vanishes without a trace. Did she disappear willingly or was she the victim of one of her lovers' private demons? Nameless must find out before it's too late to save Victor and Kay from tragic ends."

Hardcase

Bill Pronzini

1995

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Melanie Ann Aldrich wants to know who her real parents are and why no one ever told her the truth. Nameless could do this in his sleep, this case is so easy. But is it? Nameless delves easily enough into the past but no one there is talking... at first. As he starts to sort out the truth behind Melanie's mysterious history, he wonders how much his client will really want to know. Her real mother was an emotionally disturbed young woman, now deceased. Her real father was a teenage delinquent named Stephen Chehalis, who was chased out of town by his own father shortly after Melanie was born. But that's only the beginning."

Spadework

Bill Pronzini

1996

A Nameless Detective short story collection.

"Nameless's cases are filled with twists, turns and solid clueing. Spadework contains 15 previously uncollected stories, including the Shamus Award winning Cat's Paw and two tales appearing in print for the first time."

• Introduction (Marcia Muller)
• Cat's Paw
• Skeleton Rattle Your Moldy Leg
• Twenty Miles From Paradise
• Ace In The Hole
• Incident In A Neighborhood Tavern
• Something Wrong
• Here Comes Santa Claus
• Stakeout
• Souls Burning
• Bedeviled
• One Night At Dolore Park
• Home Is The Place Where
• Bomb Scare
• Worried Mother Job
• Zero Tolerance Afterword (Bill Pronzini)

Sentinels

Bill Pronzini

1996

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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 encounters apparent apathy, hostility, and mounting evidence that suggests the couple may have met with foul play. Is one or more of the inhabitants of Creekside responsible? Is it Allison's boyfriend, whose identity is unknown even to her mother? Or is it forces of a far more sinister nature?"

Illusions

Bill Pronzini

1997

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Caught between two difficult investigations - one personal and one professional. Nameless has become increasingly obsessed with his investigation into the suicide of his estranged friend and former partner, Eberhardt, when he is hired by a Santa Fe businessman to find his ex-wife. The job soon takes on frightening dimensions when the client turns up dead. Then disturbing facts about the couple's past begin to emerge. Both cases lead Nameless down a twisted path strewn with the illusions people adopt for themselves and perceive in others. Ultimately Nameless is torn between the two cases and must make a painful choice."

Boobytrap

Bill Pronzini

1998

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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 Latimer. The timing is not coincidental, for Latimer has meticulously devised a warped plan for revenge against the men who sent him to prison. His viciously ingenious boobytraps have already claimed the lives of two of his intended victims, and at Deep Mountain Lake he has lined up his next three targets: Pat Dixon, Dixon's twelve-year-old son, and Nameless himself."

Duo

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

1998

"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 the Place Where." McCone and Nameless team up in the wry "Cache and Carry." Fourteen great stories in all."

Crazybone

Bill Pronzini

2000

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Even before he visits the handsomely appointed offices of the blond, tanned insurance agent Rich Twining and the estate where the recently widowed Sheila Hunter lives uneasily with her wary ten-year-old daughter, the private investigator's darker suspicions have been aroused. For why would anyone, no matter how moneyed and beautiful and bereaved, refuse to claim fifty thousand dollars due to her in life insurance? The question is simple enough. The answer, though, lies several murders, many miles, ten years, a deviously contrived name game, and one baffling word clue - crazybone - away."

Season Of Sharing

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2001

A Sharon McCone and Nameless detective story.

A limited edition 19 page chapbook.

Bleeders

Bill Pronzini

2002

A Nameless Detective novel.

"It's the kind of case Nameless likes, because bleeders—the blackmailers, extortionists, small-time grifters, and other opportunists who prey on the weak and gullible - top his list of worthless human parasites. So there's nothing he enjoys more than putting another one or two of them out of commission and returning the $75,000 in blackmail cash to its rightful owner. Nameless though, cannot so easily close his Cohalan file - not when he finds his client face down in the middle of a four-poster bed with a bloody, powder-scorched hole behind the right ear. And only by a hair's breadth does Nameless himself escape a similar cold-blooded fate. His mind and gut wrenched by his brush with death, "Nameless" embarks on a relentless hunt for his unknown assailant in San Francisco's shadowy underworld."

Spook

Bill Pronzini

2003

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Nameless has made some changes in his professional life: He's taken on his smart, young assistant Tamara as a partner, and he's hired Jake Runyon, a reticent ex-cop with a hammerhead jaw and troubled past, to work with him in the field. But he's not put himself out to pasture. Again he enters San Francisco's shadowy underworld, this time in a search for the identity of a gentle, mentally disturbed homeless man who has been found dead in an alley doorway. Beyond the dead man's street name - Spook - clues are few. Eventually, though, they take the investigation to Aspen Creek, the small, isolated town high in the California Sierras where the nameless victim has left behind him a tragic history of murder and madness. More dangerously, and unpredictably, in Nameless's low-end office on O'Farrell Street, seventeen years of repressed rage are about to erupt again into violent revenge - from a hot-eyed wild man brandishing a Micro Uzi SMG."

Scenarios

Bill Pronzini

2005

A Nameless Detective short story collection.

"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."

• It's a Lousy World
• The Pulp Connection
• Dead Man's Slough
• The Ghosts of Ragged-Ass Gulch
• Cat's-Paw
• Skeleton Rattle Your Mouldy Leg
• Incident in a Neighborhood Tavern
• Stakeout
• La Bellezza delle Bellezze
• Souls Burning
• Bomb Scare
• The Big Bite
• Season of Sharing (written with Marcia Muller)
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Nightcrawlers

Bill Pronzini

2005

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Unaware of links between a series of gay hate crimes and the kidnapping of a young girl, investigators Bill, Jake, and Tamara tackle difficult cases when Jake pursues leads related to an attack on his son's partner."

Mourners

Bill Pronzini

2006

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Nameless has seen enough death in his years; spending his time watching someone drive to several funerals a day, funerals for people Nameless doesn't even know, is more than he can take. Then the bits and pieces begin to fall into place: The funerals James Troxell is attending are all for women who died violently. Is he the killer? One woman thinks so--she insists Troxell is the one who murdered her sister. But there are too many deaths, too many roads leading nowhere, too many crimes and secrets and fears. This might be the one case that breaks Nameless--but the mourning has to stop, so Nameless will have to see it through."

Savages

Bill Pronzini

2007

A Nameless Detective novel.

"The police said it was an accident, the dead woman's sister said it was murder... and that she knew who did it. Nameless isn't certain, but the more he learns about Nancy Mathias's life, the more inclined he is to accept the possibility of foul play. Combine that with the situation Jake Runyon, one of the agency's partners, is facing as he searches for a young man who is either a murderer or a victim, and life at their San Francisco detective agency has everyone on edge."

Fever

Bill Pronzini

2008

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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 to go home. No one is surprised when, soon after her homecoming, she disappears again."

Schemers

Bill Pronzini

2009

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Nameless wasn't supposed to come into the office on Mondays: he certainly wasn't supposed to answer the phone. On this Monday, he did both. The call was from Barney Rivera at Great Western Insurance - once upon a time a friend, now despised. Against his better judgment, Nameless agreed to take Rivera's case: a multimillionaire who collects rare books had reported the theft of eight volumes worth a half-million dollars. From a locked library. To which the collector has the only key. The books were all ultrarare detective fiction titles, making the crime a locked-room mystery about mysteries. Nameless soon realized why Rivera had called him: he expected to have the last laugh when Nameless failed to solve the puzzle."

Betrayers

Bill Pronzini

2010

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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."

Camouflage

Bill Pronzini

2011

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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's 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 isn't his wife. Then he disappears and his fiancée hires Nameless to find out why. Clearly, someone is trying to make Nameless the monkey in the middle."

Hellbox

Bill Pronzini

2012

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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 a small town with limited resources, where a major case was keeping everyone busy, a private investigator demanding action wasn't very popular. They were doing all they could, Bill was told. But it wasn't enough."

Kinsmen

Bill Pronzini

2012

A Nameless Detective novella.

"Allison Shay was traveling home from the University of Oregon with her new boyfriend, Rob Compton, when their car broke down near the tiny rural town of Creekside, California. Soon after, Allison and Rob went missing without a trace. Whatever happened, it felt like something bad to the Nameless Detective. Five days without a whisper of contact with the outside world. Long past the inconsiderate-kids stage; long past the silly and the harmless."

Femme

Bill Pronzini

2012

A Nameless Detective novella.

"In the thirty years the Nameless Detective has been a private investigator, he has never once had the misfortune to cross paths with this type of seductress... but in Femme he'll meet Cory Beckett, a deadly woman who has brought some new angles to the species. New—and terrible."

Nemesis

Bill Pronzini

2013

A Nameless Detective novel.

"Young, newly rich Verity Daniels claims to be receiving threatening demands for money from a mysterious caller. When Jake Runyon agrees to investigate, it seems a relatively simple matter to expose the extortionist by setting a trap for him. The case, however, is nowhere near as clear-cut as it first appears. And Verity Daniels is nowhere near the helpless victim she pretends to be."

Strangers

Bill Pronzini

2014

A Nameless Detective novel.

"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 for an iconic private investigator."

Vixen

Bill Pronzini

2015

A Nameless Detective novel.

"When Nameless is hired by Cory Beckett, a beautiful young woman who claims to be a model, to find her missing brother, Kenneth, it seems to be a routine matter. Kenneth has fled San Francisco in a drug-induced panic to avoid trial on a charge of stealing a valuable necklace from the alcoholic wife of the man for whom he works, wealthy yachtsman Andrew Vorhees. When agency operative Jake Runyon locates and questions the frightened young man, Cory Beckett's motives come into question and the case takes on darkly sinister complexities."

Zigzag

Bill Pronzini

2016

Two Nameless Detective novellas and two short stories.

"Zigzag is an original novella, in which a safe and simple accident investigation becomes the unraveling of a twisted murder scheme. Grapplin, which first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, deals with the kind of missing person case that can end in only one of two ways, closure or heartbreak. In the second short, Nightscape, readers discover how, indeed, one thing just leads to another. The final work, Revenant, is another original novella and entangles Nameless in a weird crime with fearful occult overtones."

Endgame

Bill Pronzini

2017

A Nameless Detective novel.

"The Nameless Detective has taken many cases over the years... and this is one for the books. Or rather, two cases that will test his agency's resources. Love is in the air...more to the point, love gone awry. One case involves a woman whose husband died accidentally in a remote cabin in the Sierras. The wife isn't buying that her husband was alone, and is determined to find out his secret and get closure...in spite of any potential heartbreak. The other case is a missing person . . . but the person missing was agoraphobic and never left the house. The husband swears that while their relationship was strained due to his wife's condition, he was still in love with her. He begs Nameless to clear him and find his wife before the cops come for him."