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This page lists crime novels and short story collections set wholly or partly in San Francisco.

The Way Some People Die

John Ross Macdonald

1951

Later editions published as by Ross MacDonald.

A Lew Archer novel.

"In a rundown house in Santa Monica, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence presses fifty crumpled bills into Lew Archer's hand and asks him to find her wandering daughter, Galatea. Described as 'crazy for men' and without discrimination, she was last seen driving off with small-time gangster Joe Tarantine, a hophead hood with a rep for violence. Archer traces the hidden trail from San Francisco slum alleys to the luxury of Palm Springs, traveling through an urban wilderness of drugs and viciousness. As the bodies begin to pile up, he finds that even angel faces can mask the blackest of hearts.Filled with dope, delinquents and murder, this is classic Macdonald and one of his very best in the Lew Archer series."

Some Slips Don't Show

A.A. Fair

1957

A Bertha Cool and Donald Lam novel. Subsequently published as by Erle Stanley Gardner.

"One morning Barclay Fisher awakes in the apartment of a beautiful woman. He is threatened with blackmail - and he is pretty sure his wife will never understand. Hence his pitiful appeal to Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Bertha smells money, and Donald heads for San Francisco. There he has quite a time with the glamorous 'other woman', a disconcerting and hilarious encounter with modern art, and a very nasty turn when he finds the body."

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."

Gangway

Donald E. Westlake and Brian Garfield

1973

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times - 1874 - when Gabe Beauchamps, former Hell’s Kitchen gangster was ‘helped’ to leave New York by ‘Boss’ Twill. His destination, chosen by Twill, is San Francisco where he arrives penniless, seasick and almost friendless. Apart from Vangie, a ravishing female pickpocket, the only part of San Francisco that impresses Gabe is the Mint with its heavily guarded gold shipments. With Vangie’s reluctant help Gabe assembles a team of unlikely but unscrupulous associates to carry out the Great Mint Robbery."

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!"

The Revenge Of Moriarty

John Gardner

1975

A Professor Moriarty novel.

"When foggy mists lift in San Francisco in 1896, they reveal a new underworld alliance in the Barbary Coast alleyways. A soft-spoken man known as Jacques Meunier has come to wield immense influence. On the street, Meunier's voice has a French accent. In private, he appears to be an Englishman. To readers familiar to this classic bestselling crime series by John Gardner, this notorious figure is, of course, Professor James Moriarty. But upon discovering that Inspector Angus MacCready Crow is tracking his movements, the Professor slips swiftly and secretly back to the familiar streets of London. A superb master of disguise a brilliantly twisted tactician, Moriarty maneuvers his army of lurkers, pickpockets, punishers, and mobsters, trapping his enemies all across Europe. In this vivid novel of London underworld crime, John Gardner has crafted another novel in his brilliant series pitting the Napoleon of Crime, James Moriarty, against mystery fiction's great detective, Sherlock Holmes"

Freebooty

Jack Foxx

1976

A later edition was credited to Bill Pronzini.

"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."

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."

Edwin of the Iron Shoes

Marcia Muller

1977

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Elderly dealer Joan Albritton has been found dead, stabbed with an antique dagger. Her neighbors are shocked. Recurring vandalism has them frightened. Ferreting out the facts will take Sharon from the chaotic jumble of the junk dealer's establishment to a museum where San Francisco's most elegant socialites gather. But it is not until she is alone in Joan's dark shop with Clothilde, the headless dressmaker's dummy; Bruno, the stuffed German shepherd; and Edwin, the little boy mannequin in the ornate iron shoes that she will have the chance to discover the murderous secret someone will kill -- and kill again -- to keep."

The Last Good Kiss

James Crumley

1978

A C.W. Sughrue novel

"Meet Private Detective C. W. Sughrue. Private detectives are supposed to find missing persons and solve crimes. But more often than not Sughrue is the one committing the crimes – everything from grand theft auto to criminal stupidity. All washed down with a hearty dose of whiskey and regret. At the end of a three-week hunt for a runaway bestselling author, Sughrue winds up in a ramshackle bar, with an alcoholic bulldog. The landlady’s daughter vanished a decade ago and now she wants Sughrue to find her. His search will take him to the deepest, darkest depths of San Francisco’s underbelly, a place as fascinating, frightening and flawed as he is."

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."

Grave Error

Stephen Greenleaf

1979

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"When corporations misbehave, Roland Nelson brings them to heel. The most powerful consumer advocate in the country, he’s ruthless in exposing cover-ups, especially when the safety of the American people is at stake. But the white knight of the American consumer has secrets of his own, and someone is making him pay. Nelson is being blackmailed, and unless his tormenter is stopped, the final payoff will be murder. Desperate for help, Nelson’s wife approaches no-nonsense San Francisco private investigator John Marshall Tanner, who takes time out of his busy schedule of skiptracing and divorce work to look into the businessman’s secrets. At first, the job seems routine, but when a brother PI is killed on the job, Tanner realizes there are dark forces swirling around the case."

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."

Death Bed

Stephen Greenleaf

1980

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"Maximilian Kottle spent all his life fearing death. When he eventually developed cancer, he thought the disease might prove a disappointment. He was wrong. Dying is far worse than he had imagined. With less than a month to live, the wealthiest man in San Francisco calls on private detective John Marshall Tanner to fulfill his final wish: He wants to see his son. Thirty-year-old Karl has been missing since he disappeared a decade ago, lost in the fog of sixties radicalism, leaving his plutocrat father in the dust. As the elder Kottle’s time runs out, he hopes the past can be forgotten, but as Tanner soon learns, the wounds of the sixties haven’t fully healed, and finding Karl Kottle will be an explosive feat."

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."

Ask the Cards A Question

Marcia Muller

1982

A Sharon McCone novel.

"There's trouble in Sharon McCone's quiet San Francisco apartment building. Madame Anya, with her cards, her tame crow, and her candles, had predicted evil for Molly Antonio. Linnea Carraway, drinking heavily and careening crazily in the wake of a divorce, had argued with her. Now the sweet, elderly lady lies in her apartment. Linnea, last to see Molly alive, is the prime suspect and if Sharon means to clear her best friend, she has to find the murderer fast. Suddenly death is in the cards, threatening Sharon's oldest friendship, her professional credibility-and her life."

State’s Evidence

Stephen Greenleaf

1982

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"El Gordo is a quiet little city just outside of San Francisco, with a charming town square, a few local businesses, and the most corrupt police force in the state of California. John Marshall Tanner has worked a case here before, and it nearly ended with him taking a beating. When the private detective returns to El Gordo, it will be his life on the line. A new district attorney is fighting to clean up this rotten burg, and he wants Tanner’s help. One of the richest men in town killed a nobody in a hit-and-run, and the culprit is doing everything he can to buy his way out of trouble. In the old days, that would have been simple. But with the DA backing him up, Tanner will scrub El Gordo clean - no matter how much blood stains its filthy streets."

The Cheshire Cat's Eye

Marcia Muller

1983

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Investigating her friend's murder, private eye Sharon McCone follows a trail into San Francisco's glamorous architectural community in search of a very valuable clue--a Tiffany lamp adorned with the grinning face of a Cheshire Cat."

Death Turns A Trick

Julie Smith

1982

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies, is happily playing the piano in a whorehouse when she suddenly finds herself assigned to make sure a near-naked state senator escapes a police raid. That dirty job done, a lovely evening turns even more delightful when she’s picked up by the cops and spends the next two hours at the Hall of Justice. Could this day get any worse? Of course! Guess who arrives home to find a dead hooker on her living room floor? Handsome Parker Phillips, Rebecca’s new beau and the most attractive man she’s met in ages, is arrested for the murder. (Worse, she suspects he might actually have done it.) On the plus side, another very attractive man is following the case - reporter Rob Burns of the San Francisco Chronicle, a possible ally. And there are other possibilities."

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."

Leave A Message for Willie

Marcia Muller

1984

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Amid the shifting world of San Francisco flea markets, shady vendors sell junk, precious antiques, and stolen goods side by side. Somewhere in the mix, a priceless collection of sacred Torah scrolls is gathering dust - and attracting a group of fanatical killers. When private investigator Sharon McCone helps one flea market kingpin fend off a stalker, she's drawn into the netherworld of deal-making and thievery, a dangerous milieu seldom seen by outsiders. For her client Willie Whelan, the sidewalk sales are a game: trick the customer, outsell the competition, and stay one step ahead of the cops. But Willie's enemies have something more sinister in mind - a conspiracy so heinous it threatens the religious artifacts, Willie's freedom, and McCone's life."

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."

The Sourdough Wars

Julie Smith

1984

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"The Heir to the Martinelli family's renowned sourdough starter is murdered before they were to auction it off, Rebecca Schwartz is determined to discover if he died for a handful of dough. The more she sifts through the tangled relationships of the city's bread-making dynasties, though, the closer she gets to the recipe for murder."

Novena for Murder

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

1984

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"Sister Mary Helen isn't ready for retirement. Instead she's arrived at a San Francisco women's college to teach history and perhaps shake things up. An earthquake does that before she can, and amid the rubble lies a body. An 'Act of God' is not responsible for the death, but rather murder. One of Sister Helen's fellow nuns begins a novena to St. Dismas, 'the Good Thief' predicting the saint will reveal the murderer within nine days. Sure enough the police soon nab a suspect...but Sister Mary Helen believes it's the wrong man and begins her own pursuit of the killer. Her motive is justice...and her inspiration, simply divine."

There's Nothing to Be Afraid of

Marcia Muller

1985

A Sharon McCone novel.

"The Globe Apartments, six stories of decaying brick and concrete, rises above San Francisco's volatile Tenderloin district. The seedy former hotel, once a haven for the city's down and out, now houses Vietnamese families striving to improve their lives. But private eye Sharon McCone believes that someone from the Tenderloin's shadowy underworld is determined to drive the newcomers out. .... When the All Souls Legal Cooperative is called upon to stop the patterns of intimidation, resentment explodes into murder. As McCone takes up the refugees' cause, she is drawn into the depths of the city's most hated industry - and into the secrets of San Francisco's buried past."

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?"

Beyond Blame

Stephen Greenleaf

1985

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"Dianne Renzel’s parents, a kind old Swedish couple, have just sold their business and are planning to use some of the money to purchase a car for their only child. But when their daughter is found murdered in her home, her flesh cut to ribbons by a madman’s blade, they’ll need to buy her justice instead. The police investigation quickly stalls, and the Renzels reach out to the only private investigator in San Francisco sensitive enough to handle this gruesome crime: John Marshall Tanner. Dianne was married to Lawrence Usser, a constitutional law professor known for helping killers evade punishment by pleading temporary insanity. When Usser is accused of murdering Dianne, his natural recourse is his most practiced defense. It falls to Tanner to prove that Usser knew what he was doing when he butchered his innocent young wife—and the case will take the detective far past the brink of madness."

True-Life Adventure

Julie Smith

1985

A Paul McDonald novel. Subsequently published as by J. Paul Drew.

"Things were going lousy for ex-reporter Paul Mcdonald: No money, no girl friend, no bright new career as a mystery novelist … and then along came private investigator Jack Birnbaum with an offer: he’d detect, and Paul would write the client reports. It wasn’t much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits. But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul’s own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul’s got a feeling that’s just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what? Birnbaum's last report concerned a kidnapped child, so Paul begins there. The trail leads him to the laboratory of a Nobel laureate geneticist, and then to San Francisco City Hall, where an extremely nasty surprise awaits. But there’s an upside—lovely witness Sardis Kincannon. Nothing like falling in love while you’re running for your life!."

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."

Killer on the Road

James Ellroy

1986

First edition published with the title Silent Terror. Subsequent editions with Ellory's preferred title Killer On The Road.

"Martin Michael Plunkett is a product of his times -- the possessor of a genius intellect, a pitiless soul of brushed steel, and a heart of blackest evil. With criminal tendencies forged in the fires of L.A.'s Charles Manson hysteria, he comes to the bay city of San Francisco -- and submits to savage and terrible impulses that reveal to him his true vocation as a pure and perfect murderer. And so begins his decade of discovery and terror, as he cuts a bloody swath across the full length of a land, ingeniously exploiting and feeding upon a society's obsessions. As he maneuvers deftly through a seamy world of drugs, flesh, and perversions, the media will call him many things -- but Martin Plunkett's real name is Death. His brilliant, twisted mind is a horriying place to explore. His madness reflects a nation's own. The killer is on the road. And there's nowhere in America to hide."

Advent of Dying

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

1986

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"Timid little Suzanne Barnes was the perfect ecclesiastical secretary: efficient, discreet, self-effacing. So it came as a shock when Suzanne invited Sisters Mary Helen, Eileen and Anne to Ghiradelli Square's Sea Wench Bar to hear her belt out the blues. Sister Mary Helen wondered what secrets lay behind those watery blue eyes. The Sea Wench Suzanne was a revelation: sassy, sexy, dressed to kill. It was her first-and last-performance, punctuated by a silver letter opener in the heart. Who killed the canary? Sister Mary Helen and her faithful band must unearth Suzanne's secrets to solve the murder before all hell breaks loose-again."

Beyond the Grave

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

1986

A John Quincannon and Elena Oliverez novel.

"A collaborative mystery that bridges the San Franciscos of 1894 and 1986. Muller and Pronzini masterfully parallel the investigations of turn-of-the-century detective Quincannon and Chicana amateur sleuth Elena Oliverez."

Tourist Trap

Julie Smith

1986

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"Rebecca Schwartz heads to an Easter morning sunrise service and gets the shock of her life when she sees a real body nailed to the cross. Rebecca learns the man was a tourist. And he's only the first to die. A man identifying himself as the Trapper is out to destroy San Francisco's tourist trade by killing visitors. But when the cops arrest an innocent man as the Trapper, Rebecca takes on an impossible defense and goes undercover to find a killer."

Huckleberry Fiend

Julie Smith

1987

A Paul McDonald novel. Subsequently published as by J. Paul Drew.

"The most priceless American manuscript in existence has unceremoniously dropped into Paul Mcdonald's hands - now what? In between much-needed therapy sessions, Paul's neurotic friend Booker the burglar stole it from his dad’s girl friend’s roommate, and now wants sometime-sleuth Paul to find its rightful owner. Because he’s pretty sure the roommate's not it. Paul is so awed he can hardly bring himself to touch it. It’s none other than the missing holograph of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And Beverly the roommate's no librarian, she’s a flight attendant, so Booker suspects chicanery. He’s only too right: Beverly, it turns out, is dead. Murdered for the manuscript, if Paul’s guess is right. Suddenly he’s the protagonist of A Literary Nightmare, surrounded by Mysterious Strangers, playing out A Double-Barrelled Detective Story involving A Stolen White Elephant and pretty much Roughing It with the bullying Homicide Inspector Howard Blick. It’s truly, A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage….no, not a marriage, a manuscript! But Paul does have his eye on tough and savvy Sardis Kincannon… The liberally-sprinkled Mark Twain quotes and references make this witty yarn a treat for the literary-minded, and better yet, the twisty plot will satisfy the pickiest mystery fiend."

Toll Call

Stephen Greenleaf

1987

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"John Marshall Tanner finds his secretary slumped over on the sofa, her arm draped across her face. This private eye has seen enough death that, for a moment, he thinks Peggy Nettleton has been murdered. Fortunately, after a moment’s panic, he realizes she has simply dozed off. Tanner has worked alongside Peggy for eight years, and if something happened to her, it would shatter him. Unfortunately, that grim nightmare is about to come true. For weeks now, Peggy has been getting obscene phone calls from one of the most deranged minds in San Francisco. To set her mind at rest, Tanner goes looking for the caller - a decision that sends him down a path of madness and murder that could either push him into Peggy’s arms or separate them forever."

Eye of the Storm

Marcia Muller

1988

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Appleby Island, once the magnificent home of a tycoon and planter, is a place of history and mystery in the Sacramento delta. Its story includes hints of tragedy, fueling rumors that ghosts still walk its derelict orchards. Now Patsy McCone, her new lover, and a group of investors are turning the old mansion into an elegant bed and breakfast inn. Summoned by her eccentric younger sister, San Francisco's #1 P.I. Sharon McCone arrives in the teeth of a gale, taking a busman's holiday to investigate mysterious acts of vandalism that are running the project to ruin. But when simple sabotage escalates to savage murder, she finds herself trapped on the island with a desperate killer -- and flung into a raging storm of treachery, violence, and sudden death."

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."

The Missing Madonna

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

1988

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"Sister Mary Helen is sinfully good at snooping through the San Francisco fog. Now a fellow OWL (Older Woman's League) member has disappeared. The police believe Erma Duran simply flew the coop, but Sister feels a Higher Authority pushing her to investigate. A gold medal entangled in Erma's bedsprings and a cryptic clue to a Byzantine madonna deepens the mystery. By the time Police Inspector Kate Murphy joins the hunt, Sister's good intentions have already paved her way straight to the Mission District--and a hellish encounter with sudden death."

There's Something in A Sunday

Marcia Muller

1989

A Sharon McCone novel.

"It's a cold Sunday in San Francisco. Sharon McCone's alone on a routine surveillance job, following a man named Frank Wilkinson through the city's lush horticultural hot spots to the sere foothills of the Diablos. But when she returns to find her kindly old client in a pool of blood nothing she's learned explains it. The search for answers takes her from Wilkinson's sullen brood on Burning Oak Ranch, to the eccentric havoc of a household in the Haight, to Golden Gate Park and the desperate digs of the homeless. Unraveling the threads that link a homeless man, a pair of prominent activists, a wayward rancher, and a mysterious missing beauty, Sharon is plunged into the depths of domenstic mayhem...entering a realm where dreams shatter and marriage leads to bloody murder."

The Shape of Dread

Marcia Muller

1989

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Private eye Sharon McCone dusts off a baffling case that made headlines two years earlier. Young comic Tracy Kostakos disappeared just as she was beginning to attract large audiences. McCone turns up oddities in the case and reveals the darker side of comedy--as well as upsets the California legal justice system."

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."

Trophies and Dead Things

Marcia Muller

1990

A Sharon McCone novel.

"When a former sixties radical is murdered during a string of random sniper attacks, the All Souls Legal Cooperative must settle his surprisingly large estate. Then private investigator Sharon McCone comes across a new will, made just days before he died, that disinherits his two children in favor of four unknown and unconnected parties. McCone sifts through Perry Hilderly's belongings, but finds little to explain this puzzling change - until she uncovers a .357 with the serial number burned off."

Where Echoes Live

Marcia Muller

1991

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Sharon McCone has been asked by a former colleague to look into the plans of a large corporation to reopen a gold mine near the Nevada border that could seriously endanger the ecosystem of the area. Following a trail of bizarre happenings, disappearances, and a dead body, McCone's trail leads to her to a Hong Kong industrialist . . . and a killer bent on large-scale destruction."

Deceptions: A Short Story Collection

Marcia Muller

1991

"A collection of short stories ranging from the straight-forward detective to the off-beat mystery. Includes Sharon McCone and Elena Oliverez stories as well as an original introduction by the author. Marcia Muller."

Book Case

Stephen Greenleaf

1991

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"John Marshall Tanner has spent most of his life avoiding parties—an easy feat for San Francisco’s most introspective private detective. Nevertheless, when one of his closest friends, publisher Bryce Chatterton, finds himself in desperate need of a private eye, Tanner joins him at the party thrown to announce Periwinkle Press’s latest publication—but there’s little reason to celebrate. The publisher’s financial backer has decided to pull the plug on Periwinkle unless Chatterton can come up with a bestseller fast. Chatterton thinks he has his hands on a surefire hit—but he’s not sure if he can print it. The book is an anonymous tell-all, implicating some of the city’s most powerful in a chilling miscarriage of justice, and Chatterton needs the author to corroborate the story. Only Tanner can track down the mysterious writer, but are the secrets between the pages of this manuscript worth dying for?"

Murder in Ordinary Time

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

1991

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"Just one bite of that irresistible Christmas cookie and Christina Kelly, Channel 5's leading investigative reporter, was on the air--dead. The odor of bitter almond told Sister May Helen the cause of the death: cyanide. Somewhere in the studio was the wily killer; it was a person everyone knew. Had Christina's investigations led her to her dead end? Or was the fatal cookie meant for someone else: the notorious womanizer; the hard-drinking floor manager with something to hide; or perhaps Wicked Wendy, who certainly fit her nickname? Or was the intended victim the intrepid nun herself? Heaven help her as Sister Mary Helen charges in where angels fear to tread to trap a killer before he strikes again."

San Francisco Kills

Denny Martin Flinn

1991

The first of two mystery novels by Flinn featuring Spencer Holmes (the grandson of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler) and his sidekick Sowhat Dihje.

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."

Pennies on A Dead Woman's Eyes

Marcia Muller

1992

A Sharon McCone novel.

"It looked like a lost cause. Convicted of a brutal society murder in 1956, Lis Benedict had served a long sentence and just been released from jail. Then in a last desperate attempt to clean the Benedict name, her daughter Judy convinced All Souls Legal Cooperative to take her mother's case before the Historical Tribunal. Sharon McCone loves a challenge but has little affection for the cold and unlikeable Lis. Then, suddenly, the woman in question is dead, a vicious threat is scrawled in read paint across the front of Sharon's house, and San Francisco's #1 P.I. is following a fresh trail of death that leads back to a wild debutante, a prestigious think tank, and the power politics of the '50s...all in search of a killer who has engineered a fatal cover-up and built a brilliant career on murder."

Blood Type

Stephen Greenleaf

1992

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"John Marshall Tanner, PI, is a drinking man, and he prefers to imbibe in the comfort of a nameless San Francisco bar. Tanner has just one friend there, a social crusader named Tom Crandall who has just discovered that his wife, a celebrated chanteuse, is having an affair with one of the city’s most powerful men: Richard Sands. Sands is a ruthless corporate tycoon, and if he wants to steal Crandall’s wife, there’s nothing either Crandall or the private detective can do about it. But soon after Crandall confides in Tanner, the jilted husband is found dead. Although the police write Crandall’s death off as just another overdose, Tanner knows his friend never touched drugs. Convinced the murder was connected to Sands, he begins a journey that will take him into the depths of San Francisco’s seediest district—the Tenderloin—where only the streetwise survive."

Wolf in the Shadows

Marcia Muller

1993

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Successful in her investigative work for All Souls Legal Cooperative, happy with her newly renovated house, and feeling somewhat more secure in her relationship with the mysterious environmental activist, Hy Ripinsky, Sharon is shocked to find herself suddenly faced with a wrenching ultimatum. No longer a small, informal co-op, All Souls has grown. New legal partners, exasperated with Sharon's free-wheeling ways, want to kick her upstairs with a raise, perks, and a "career opportunity" that will chain her to a desk forever. Offered a take-it-or-leave-it deal, Sharon is in turmoil. And to make matters worse, Hy has disappeared."

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."

Other People's Skeletons

Julie Smith

1993

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"When Rebecca Schwartz learns that her best friend and legal partner Chris Nicholson is accused of murder and won't give an alibi, Rebecca gets curious. To her amazement, Rebecca finds that her partner has a secret life--and so did the victim, dashing critic Jason McKendrick. For that matter, so does everyone else in the case, causing Rebecca to wonder what planet she's stumbled onto. One thing she knows with certainty: She has to shake some skeletons from the closets - and fast - or Chris is going to prison."

Till the Butchers Cut Him Down

Marcia Muller

1994

A Sharon McCone novel.

"In the biggest professional move of her life, Sharon is cutting her umbilical cord of All Soul's Legal Cooperative and opening her own shop. But even before the phone lines are installed, McCone Investigations gets its first case - one that lifts Sharon off a roof in a helicopter and deposits her on a posh hideaway on the north California coast. Her new client is T.J. Gordon, a "turnaround man" - that rare breed of corporate troubleshooter who creates profits and enemies while reviving failing companies. Gordon owns more than the helicopter that whisks Sharon away... much more. And he's not really new. A friend from her radical student days in Berkeley, T.J. was a campus nomad with a lifestyle shadier than most. Now T.J. Gordon - grown ever more quirky, eccentric, and reclusive - is convinced someone is trying to kill him. He wants Sharon's help. Then he does another kind of turnaround: he vanishes."

False Conception

Stephen Greenleaf

1994

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"When San Francisco detective John Marshall Tanner is hired to do a background check on a prospective surrogate mother, the job seems simple enough. There are only two stipulations - the surrogate must not know the identity of the contracting parents, and the investigation must be completed in three days. With some misgivings, Tanner checks out Greta Hammond and gives her the all clear. Two days later, the embryo of Millicent and Stuart Colbert is implanted in her womb. Two months later Greta Hammond disappears. The Colberts think she has taken the fetus to barter in an extortion attempt. But days pass and no ransom request is made, no barter suggested. It soon seems clear that Greta learned the identity of the child's parents and immediately fled. But why? The answer takes Tanner deep into the secrets of the Colbert family, whose history includes both murder and incest and a bitter struggle for control of an immense fashion empire."

A Wild and Lonely Place

Marcia Muller

1995

A Sharon McCone novel.

"It's worth a $1 Million reward to Sharon McCone if she catches the man called the Diplo-bomber, who has set off bombs at consulates all over the U.S. Now he's in San Francisco - and that's McCone's turf. When he misses his latest target, the embassy of a small Arab emirate, McCone's on the spot--and soon discovers some disturbing things about this strange, forbidding embassy. One is the American woman kept a virtual prisoner there by her Arab mother-in-law. The other is a mischievous, lonely nine-year-old girl who's in grave danger not only from the terrorist but also from her estranged playboy father. Went the child disappears, McCone follows her trail to a desolate Caribbean island. Here McCone's rescue mission takes her dangerously close to death and the hidden motive behind the Diplo-bomber's explosions. Now, with a child's life hanging in the balance, what McCone plans to do may either be called cold-blooded murder...or justice."

The McCone Files

Marcia Muller

1995

Sharon McCone short stories.

"Sharon is a humane and sympathetic sleuth who makes a difference to her clients and to the world around her. The McCone Files contains the 13 previously uncollected short stories about McCone, including the Shamus Award winning 'Final Resting Place', as well as two written specially for this volume."

• Place That Time Forgot
• Somewhere In The City
• Final Resting Place
• Silent Night
• Benny's Space
• Lost Coast
• File Closed
• Last Open File
• Merrill-Go-Round
• Wild Mustard
• Broken Men
• Deceptions
• Cache And Carry
• Deadly Fantasies
• All The Lonely People

To Play the Fool

Laurie R. King

1995

A Kate Martinelli novel.

"When a band of homeless people cremate a beloved dog in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the authorities are willing to overlook a few broken regulations. But three weeks later, when the dog's owner gets the same fiery send-off, the San Francisco Police Department has a real headache on its hands. The autopsy suggests homicide, but Inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner, Al Hawkin, have little else to go on: a homeless victim with no positive ID, a group of witnesses with little love for the cops, and a possible suspect, known only as Brother Erasmus, who proves both articulate and impossible to understand. Erasmus, has a genius for blending with his surroundings, yet he stands out wherever he goes. Kate begins the frustrating task of interrogating a man who communicates only through quotations. Trying to learn something of his history leads Kate along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance."

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?"

With Child

Laurie R. King

1996

A Kate Martinelli novel.

"When twelve-year-old Jules Cameron comes to Kate for a professional consultation, Kate's not sure she's that desperate for distraction. Jules is worried about her friend Dio, a homeless boy she met in a park. Dio has disappeared without a word of farewell, and Jules wants Kate to find him Reluctant as she is, Kate can't say no--and soon she finds herself forming a friendship with the bright, quirky girl. But the search for Dio will prove to be much more than both bargained for--and it's only the beginning. When Jules disappears while taking a trip with Kate, a desperate search begins...and Kate knows all too well the odds of finding the child alive."

The Broken Promise Land

Marcia Muller

1996

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Someone is bent on getting revenge on Ricky Savage, Sharon McCone's brother-in-law and a two-time Grammy Award-winning country singer. The danger escalates as Sharon realizes that more than one person has been playing underhanded games--and that the music industry is truly a broken promise land."

Flesh Wounds

Stephen Greenleaf

1996

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"As far as John Marshall Tanner can tell, everyone in San Francisco is lonely, and few are lonelier than him. He’s lost too many friends, either to death or distance, and there’s no one he misses more than Peggy Nettleton, his beloved former secretary, who left his detective agency six years ago, and broke his heart on her way out the door. When she calls out of the blue, Tanner can tell she’s in trouble—and that means he’s in trouble too. Peggy is due to get married in three weeks, and her soon-to-be stepdaughter, Nina Evans, has disappeared. Nina worked as a model, and it doesn’t take long for Tanner to discover that she was in over her head. As he combs the unfamiliar city in search of the vanished girl, he finds that his old feelings for Peggy are stronger than ever—strong enough to get him killed."

Past Tense

Stephen Greenleaf

1997

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"Tanner's relationship with Charley Sleet of the San Francisco Police Department has both personal and professional dimensions and has long been of vital importance to both men. Nothing could be more out of character than for Sleet to stand up in a civil courtroom and gun down a total stranger. Tanner's search for answers takes him deep into the heated controversy over claims of recovered memories of sexual abuse, into the darkly violent corridors of police corruption, and, most painfully of all, into the fearsome new contours of his best friend's mind."

Both Ends of the Night

Marcia Muller

1997

A Sharon McCone novel.

"A full-fledged pilot for several years, Sharon McCone is due for the biannual flight review required by the FAA. Her former flight instructor, Matty Wildress, invites her to fly up to the small Sonoma County town of Los Alegres for the evaluation. The test isn't due for several months, however, and McCone suspects Matty has more than safe flying on her mind. She's right. Matty's live-in lover John Seabrook, has been gone for a week, abandoning his small son, Zach. In a desperate letter John entrusts the boy to Matty's care, urging them to go into hiding immediately. But Matty is a professional and determined to perform in the last aerobatic air show of the year. Despite the extra security, something goes horribly wrong. Suddenly, an ordinary missing person case becomes a personal vendetta. Together with her lover, Hy Ripinsky, McCone bypasses the authorities to hunt down the man responsible for Matty's death. Her search will take her across the country as she uncovers the startling details of John Seabrook's past."

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."

Death of an Angel

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

1997

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"It is a rainy Feast of All Souls and feisty Sister Mary Helen, the Bay City’s famous crime-fighting nun, has nothing more on her mind than helping Angelica Bowers, the troubled young woman who works in the library of Mount St. Francis College. Unfortunately, her plans are shattered when dear Gemma Burke, one of her oldest friends, becomes the latest victim of a serial rapist-murderer. Sister Mary Helen realizes that the San Francisco police, despite their furious protests, need a little divine intervention—so she and her sidekick, Sister Eileen, set off after Gemma’s killer. But little do the devout detectives know that they are walking into an intricate web of evil woven by a cold-blooded killer."

Death Takes Up a Collection

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

1998

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"Monsignor Joseph Higgins liked, along with wine and women, the finer things in life-so much so that he may have dipped into the church funds to finance his good tastes. But would that be reason enough to kill the crooked clergyman? Someone had poisoned the pastor-and there was no shortage of likely suspects, from his surly housekeeper to several prominent parishioners. Now Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen must delve into this sacrilegious slaying and bring a killer to justice."

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."

While Other People Sleep

Marcia Muller

1998

A Sharon McCone novel.

"It starts when Sharon McCone's acquaintance tells her that someone was pretending to be the private eye at a party. Sharon investigates further and discovers that the imposter has no qualms about mixing business with sex. Even more alarming, the faux McCone is cancelling Sharon's credit cards, invading her home, and making frightening calls to family members. But when Sharon is almost arrested for a crime committed by the imposter, the determined P.I. pulls out all the stops in her search for a criminal hitting far too close to home."

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."

Strawberry Sunday

Stephen Greenleaf

1999

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"John Marshall Tanner left most of his blood in a vacant lot on Twentieth Street, along with the body of his closest friend. Tanner and Charley Sleet shot each other at the same time—a tragic finale to a long friendship that left Sleet dead and Tanner bleeding out on the sidewalk. The EMTs saved Tanner, but he isn’t sure he wants to be alive. The uncertainty doesn’t last long though, and soon he will find a reason to live—and to die. While he recuperates in the hospital, Tanner befriends Rita Lombardi, a strawberry picker from Haciendas who is recovering from corrective surgery on her clubfeet. Rita leaves the hospital walking tall, but soon after, she’s murdered in her hometown, unforgivably guilty of promoting unionization. To avenge her, Tanner will hunt for the killer as long as the blood keeps pumping in his veins."

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."

Listen to the Silence

Marcia Muller

2000

A Sharon McCone novel.

"For PI Sharon McCone, when one door opens, another shuts. In the midst of celebrating a joyous wedding, she gets word that her father has died. The news leads her to the rituals of death: the scattering of ashes, the sharing of grief, the sorting of a loved one's belongings. But the last of these acts leads to a shocking discovery that will flip her life upside down. Soon, McCone is drawn into a conspiracy that includes the attempted murder of an activist lawyer and threats on her own life. No one is talking, and to discover the truth, Sharon McCone must learn to listen to the silence - before a killer's bullet silences her."

McCone and Friends

Marcia Muller

2000

Sharon McCone short stories.

"Now McCone’s colleagues get a chance to offer their viewpoints on some cases. McCone and Friends contains three stories told by McCone herself, as well as two stories narrated by the agency's investigator Rae Kelleher; a story from the viewpoint of its office manager Ted Smalley; an investigation conducted by McCone's nephew Mick Savage; and one by her long-term lover Hy Ripinsky."

• If You Can't Take The Heat
• The Holes In The System
• One Final Arrangement
• Up At The Riverside
• Knives At Midnight
• The Wall
• Recycle
• Solo

Ellipsis

Stephen Greenleaf

2000

A John Marshall Tanner novel.

"Somebody wants Chandelier Wells dead. After years churning out bestselling bodice-rippers, she’s the best-known author in San Francisco, and she’s no stranger to receiving threatening letters. But the most recent ones seem different. They feel real. Ms. Wells knows her life is in danger, and the only man capable of protecting her is John Marshall Tanner. Tanner is a private detective, not a bodyguard, but at Ms. Wells’s rates, he’ll be anything she likes. He soon finds that her life is a chaotic one though. Between crazed fans, a jealous ex, and a scheming agent, Chandelier Wells has no one she can trust. When her chauffer is killed by a car bomb intended to erase her from the bestseller lists, Tanner knows that the life of this Chandelier is hanging precariously in the balance."

Night Work

Laurie R. King

2000

A Kate Martinelli novel.

"Kate and her partner, Al Hawkin, are called to a scene of carefully executed murder: the victim is a muscular man, handcuffed and strangled, a stun gun's faint burn on his chest and candy in his pocket. The likeliest person to want him dead, his often-abused wife, is meek and frail--and has an airtight alibi. Kate and Al are stumped, until a second body turns up--also zapped, cuffed, and strangled...and carrying a candy bar. This victim: a convicted rapist. As newspaper headlines speculate about vendetta killings, a third death draws Kate and Al into a network of pitiless destruction that reaches far beyond San Francisco, a modern-style hit list with shudderingly primal roots."

Requiem at the Refuge

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

2000

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"How do you make God laugh? Tell Him you’ve got a plan. That’s what Sister Mary Helen reminds herself when she sets out to start a new life—as a volunteer in a women’s homeless shelter. A savvy octogenarian with an adventurous streak, Mary Helen is no stranger to the shady side of San Francisco’s hilly streets. So when a young resident at the Refuge shelter is found dead, Mary Helen makes it her business to solve the murder. Soon this lady of the Order gets herself into a holy mess involving corrupt local politicians, a prostitution ring, and a tangled web of private-eyes, police officers, and the “refugees” themselves. Mary Helen calls upon her beloved sisters at St. Francis College for salvation, but it’s going to take a lot of prayers to protect Mary Helen from the dangerous characters—and shocking confessions—that come in her wake."

Mean Rooms: A Short Story Collection

Julie Smith

2000

A short story collection that includes stories that feature Rebecca Schwartz and Skip Langdon.

"From the high art of revenge in Fresh Paint to the depths of the Antarctic in The End of the Earth, this collection proves that Julie Smith is indeed one of those writers who never writes the same story twice."

• Silk Strands
• Grief Counselor
• Where The Boys Are
• Fresh Paint
• Blood Types
• Always Othello
• Too Mean To Die
• Montezuma's Other Revenge
• Project Mushroom
• Cul-De-Sac
• Crime Wave In Pinhole
• Strangers On A Plane
• The End Of The Earth

Season Of Sharing

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2001

A Sharon McCone and Nameless detective story.

A limited edition 19 page chapbook.

Dead Midnight

Marcia Muller

2002

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Stretching flat across the water, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is a popular spot...for jumpers. Roger Nagasawa, a brilliant employee at a popular Internet magazine, is its latest "suicide" and veteran P. I. Sharon McCone's new case. But instead of getting closure for his family, McCone uncovers more questions than answers: Roger's stark apartment...his aloof parents, who had wanted an investigation and now refuse to talk...a cutthroat workplace...a cache of secrets in a shady waterfront deal. It's a puzzle within a puzzle with a deadly game at its heart. For the elusive, twisted trail is about to circle back into Sharon McCone's own life-and bring the danger home."

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."

The Corporal Works of Murder

Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

2002

A Sister Mary Helen novel.

"On the feast of St. Francis Caracciolo, Sister Mary Helen finished chanting the Corporal Acts of Mercy-"...to feed and shelter the homeless, visit the sick, and bury the dead"-before she went to work at The Refuge, a San Francisco women's shelter. Immediately she wondered about a pretty new visitor, suspiciously too well kept to be down and out. Only a few minutes later, Mary Helen found the mysterious woman shot and dying on the sidewalk. The police don't want an old nun meddling in the case, but that doesn't stop Mary Helen from snooping around and discovering the victim's true identity. And when Mary Helen discovers two more bodies, it's the police who may be confessing their need of a sharp-witted Sister with connections to a Higher Authority."

Black Powder, White Smoke

Loren D. Estleman

2002

"In New Orleans, the black man, Honey Boutrille, saves a prostitute's life by killing her attacker. In San Francisco, the white man, Twice Emmerson, kills a Chinaman because he likes killing. These two men go on the lam. The protagonists are different as black and white—Honey rough but honorable, Emmerson chaotic and violent. They attract not only the dogs of the law but the avid interest of those who would exploit them. A journalist tracks Honey, eager to turn his life story into a cautionary parable that will chill white readers. A showman seeks Emmerson, cynically eager to sign him to a contract for the stage and create a competitor to Buffalo Bill. Honey and Emmerson rage through an authentic West drawn with a fierce and gleeful truthfulness, leaving trails of bodies, pursued ever more relentlessly, and moving always toward a central and inescapable meeting place, Denver, Colorado."

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."

The Dangerous Hour

Marcia Muller

2004

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Sharon McCone and the staff of McCone Investigations are enjoying the firm's healthy state and future prospects. But things take a turn for the worse when one of McCone's operatives, Julia Rafael, is arrested for stealing a credit card from a client and making purchases with it. Sharon took a chance on hiring Julia, a former juvenile delinquent who seems to have turned her life around. Julia swears she is innocent and Sharon thinks there must be some mistake-until she learns about the many expensive mail order packages the police found in Julia's apartment. Sharon must get to the bottom of the mystery before the firm's reputation is ruined."

Port Hazard

Loren D. Estleman

2004

A Page Murdock novel.

"Page Murdock doesn’t know why someone wants him dead, but he knows where the hired killers are coming from. Thus begins Murdoch’s descent into a hell more decadent, corrupt, and dangerous than even he has ever seen—San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. With an unwilling backup man, Murdock takes up temporary residence among the whores, gamblers, dope addicts, and cutthroats of the continent’s foulest district. No man here is trustworthy. But perhaps the men who seem respectable are the most insidious of all."

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."

Locked Rooms

Laurie R. King

2005

A Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel.

"In 1924, San Francisco is booming. The great fire and earthquake of 1906 cleared the ground for a modern city, but the closer she comes to the place she used to call home, the more troubling Mary Russell's dreams become. As Russell and her husband, the great detective Sherlock Holmes, attempt to settle their affairs in the City by the Bay, Mary's past isn't the only thing that catches up with them - a mysterious stranger is waiting for the pair, and may be the only one who holds the key to the locked rooms that have been haunting Mary's dreams."

San Francisco Noir

Editor: Peter Maravelis

2005

The contents are:

• The Prison (Domenic Stansberry)
• It Can Happen (David Corbett)
• Double Espresso (Sin Soracco)
• After Hours at La Chinita (Barry Gifford)
• The Neutral Zone (Kate Braverman)
• Le Rouge et le Noir (Alvin Lu)
• Larry’s Place (Michelle Tea)
• The Other Barrio (Alejandro Murguía)
• From Genesis to Revelation (Peter Plate)
• Deception of the Thrush (Will Christopher Baer)
• Weight Less Than Shadow (Jim Nisbet)
• Fixed (Jon Longhi)
• Briley Boy (Robert Mailer Anderson)
• Kid’s Last Fight (Eddie Muller)
• Confessions of a Sex Maniac (David Henry Sterry)

The Art of Detection

Laurie R. King

2006

A Kate Martinelli novel.

"Kate Martinelli has seen her share of peculiar things as a San Francisco cop, but never anything quite like this: an ornate Victorian sitting room straight out of a Sherlock Holmes story–complete with violin, tobacco-filled Persian slipper, and gunshots in the wallpaper that spell out the initials of the late queen. Philip Gilbert was a true Holmes fanatic ... with a collection of priceless memorabilia - a collection some would kill for. And perhaps someone did: In his collection is a century-old manuscript purportedly written by Holmes himself–a manuscript that eerily echoes details of Gilbert’s own murder. Now, with the help of her partner, Al Hawkin, Kate must follow the convoluted trail of a killer–one who may have trained at the feet of the greatest mind of all times."

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."

Vanishing Point

Marcia Muller

2006

A Sharon McCone novel.

"In the wake of her Nevada nuptuals to fellow detective Hy Ripinsky, McCone dives into one of her most baffling cases yet- the disappearance of Laurel Greenwood, who vanished twenty-two years before without a trace. Laurel's grown-up daughter is desperately seeking closure and wants McCone to find out the fate of the young mother and artisty who never returned from a day of landscape painting in a central California coastal town. The case is cold, and the evidence McCone begins uncovering is chilling. Secrets kept for two decades now emerge to create a portrait of a woman who's perfect on the surface and anything but a paragon beneath it. She intends to uncover the truth- the whole truth- even when it awakens her suspicions that the bonds of marriage can easily become chains, and that escaping them may lead to desperate acts... or murderous ones."

The Ever-Running Man

Marcia Muller

2007

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Sharon McCone is hired by her husband's security firm to track down 'the ever-running man', a shadowy figure who has been leaving explosive devices at their various offices. She doesn't have to search for long. When McCone narrowly escapes an explosion in her apartment building, she catches a glimpse of his retreating figure. The ever-running man is dangerously close - and anyone connected to the firm seems to be within his deadly range. To complicate matters, McCone is forced to question her reluctant husband Hy about his involvement in some of the firm's dark secrets. The history of corruption may jeopardise their marriage, but uncovering the secrets of the firm may be the only way she can save her husband's life, and her own."

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."

Locked In

Marcia Muller

2009

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Shot in the head by an unknown assailant, Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack occurred at her agency's offices, the natural conclusion was that it was connected to one of the firm's cases. As Sharon lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison and discover her attacker's identity, all the members of her agency fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, sorting through the clues her colleagues discover. As the case draws to a surprising and even shocking conclusion, Sharon's husband, Hy, must decide whether or not to surrender to his own violent past and exact fatal vengeance when the person responsible is identified."

San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics

Editor: Peter Maravelis

2009

The contents are:

• A Watcher By the Dead (Ambrose Bierce)
• The Third Circle (Frank Norris)
• The Black Hole of San Francisco (Mark Twain)
• South of the Slot (Jack London)
• The Scorched Face (Dashiell Hammett)
• The Collector Comes After Payday (Fletcher Flora)
• Souls Burning (Bill Pronzini)
• The Second Coming (Joe Gores)
• Knives in the Dark (Don Herron)
• Christ Walked Down Market Street (Ernest J. Gaines)
• Deceptions (Marcia Muller)
• The King Butcher of Bristol Bay (Oscar Peñaranda)
• Invisible Time (Janet Dawson)
• Street Court (Seth Morgan)
• The Numbers Game (Craig Clevenger)
• The Woman Who Laughed (William T. Vollmann)
• Ash (John Shirley)

Coming Back

Marcia Muller

2010

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Sharon struggles to regain control over her body. Impatient with her progress, Sharon wants everything to go back to normal, although she suspects that it won't be possible to return to her old life. Meanwhile, Sharon's relationships are suffering. Her husband Hy Ripinsky is impatient with her refusal to accept help and some of her colleagues doubt her abilities after the accident. But when Sharon's friend from physical therapy goes missing, she must call upon those closest to her to find out the truth behind the disappearance. The investigation soon points to issues of national security and finally forces Sharon to confront her greatest fears."

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."

City of Whispers

Marcia Muller

2011

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Private eye Sharon McCone receives an e-mail asking for help from her emotionally disturbed half brother Darcy Blackhawk. She replies . . . but gets no response. As Sharon digs deeper, she discovers that Darcy sent his message from an Internet café in San Francisco, a city he's never been to before. Sensing that her brother is in terrible danger, Sharon begins a search for him throughout the city. The investigation leads her to the body of a woman at the Palace of Fine Arts, where a witness had told her that Darcy was headed. Then, as she digs deeper, Sharon uncovers a connection to the unsolved murder of a young heiress to a multimillion-dollar banking fortune. Now Sharon must race to solve both murders and ensure her brother's safety, despite the imminent danger that lurks within her own family."

Skeleton in the Closet

Marcia Muller

2012

A Sharon McCone short story published electronically only.

"Sharon McCone is excited--and relieved--to move her detective agency into the perfect new office space. Unfortunately, real estate woes aren't the only headache that the new building brings into Sharon's life. Possible nineteenth century ghosts and a shady "intra-reality organization" ensure that Sharon's new office will bring as much excitement as any of her clients."

Looking For Yesterday

Marcia Muller

2012

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Three years ago, Caro Warrick was acquitted for the murder of her best friend Amelia Bettencourt, but the lingering doubts of everyone around Caro are affecting her life. Sharon McCone is confident that she can succeed where other detectives have failed (though at times it's hard to shake her own misgivings about what happened), but when Caro is brutally beaten right at Sharon's doorstep, the investigation takes on a whole new course. How many more people remain at risk until Amelia's murderer is finally caught?"

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."

The Bughouse Affair

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2013

A Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon novel.

"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. Sabina's case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady "dip" who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places. Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate's lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee. 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."

The Spook Lights Affair

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2013

A Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon novel.

"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. The seemingly impossible disappearance of her body creates an even more serious problem for the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. Sabina hadn't wanted to take the assignment, but her partner John Quincannon insisted it would serve as entree to the city's ultra rich and powerful. That means money, and Quincannon loves the almighty dollar. Which is why he is hunting the bandit who robbed the Wells, Fargo office of $35,000. Working their separate cases Quincannon follows a danger-laden trail to unmask the murderous perpetrators of the Wells, Fargo robbery. Sabina works her wiles on friends and relatives of the vanished debutante until the pieces of her puzzle start falling into place. But it's an oddly disguised gent appearing out of nowhere who provides the final clue to both cases - the shrewd 'crackbrain' who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes."

The Night Searchers

Marcia Muller

2014

A Sharon McCone novel.

"When new clients Jay and Camilla Givens come to Sharon McCone with Camilla's stories of devil worshippers performing human sacrifices in San Francisco, the detective is sceptical, to say the least. However, when she discovers that Jay is involved with the treasure hunting group The Night Searchers, she starts looking into what exactly he and the other participants are up to after dark. As she digs deeper into the Searchers, Sharon joins their ranks in order to find out more."

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."

Cul-De-Sac

Julie Smith

2014

A electronic publication of a Rebecca Schwartz short story. The story was originally published in the Sisters In Crime II anthology in 1990.

"When Julie Smith’s much-loved lawyer sleuth, Rebecca Schwartz, helps a friend move, she’s pretty surprised to find the new roommate digging a grave. This mystery short story’s a bit darker than most of Rebecca’s adventures, although the irrepressible San Francisco lawyer manages to keep her famous sense of humor."

Silk Strands

Julie Smith

2014

A electronic publication of a short story that was originally published in the anthology Deadly Allies in 1992.

"Even when the cops showed up. There was something just so ICY about him. San Francisco poet Morgan Ellender is conducting a post-mortem on her failed romance when San Francisco's finest pay her a visit, informing her that the real victim is not her bludgeoned heart, but her secretive ex-lover. How can she disentangle herself from the web of secrecy he's woven her into-- maintaining a pathological aloofness, never introducing her to his friends, forbidding her even to call him at his office? She suddenly realizes she has no information to back up her innocence. It seems impossible that he could have inspired enough passion in anyone to commit murder. But someone did."

Montezuma's Other Revenge

J. Paul Drew (Julie Smith)

2014

A electronic publication of a short story featuring Paul McDonald. The story was originally published in the anthology Justice for Hire in 1990.

"Sometime San Francisco private investigator Paul Mcdonald wears lots of hats: ex-reporter, struggling mystery writer, devoted cat owner, and friend to a number of shady characters - who tend to get him into trouble. Paul’s not so much hard-boiled as smart-mouthed (in a highly charming way!) - and broke. But this time his $55 an hour fee leads from investigating a friendly burgling-by-acquaintance to a brutal murder. An Aztec sculpture of questionable origin has gone missing, leaving a wake of misfortune that seems to point to a curse: psychotropic drugs, pre-Columbian art, sacrificial maidens… Paul traces the statue to a South of Market loft at the intersection of the international art world and a cult devoted to the revival of the Aztec religion."

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."

The Body Snatchers Affair

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2015

A Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon novel.

"Two missing bodies and two separate investigations take Carpenter and Quincannon from the heights above San Francisco Bay to the depths of Chinatown's opium dens. For John Quincannon, this is a first: searching a Chinatown opium den for his client's husband, missing in the middle of a brewing tong war set to ignite over the stolen corpse of Bing Ah Kee. Meanwhile, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, unsure of the dark secrets her suitor might be concealing, searches for the corpse of a millionaire, stolen from a sealed family crypt and currently being held for ransom. With the threat of a tong war hanging over the city (a war perhaps being spurred on by corrupt officials), Carpenter and Quincannon have no time to lose in solving their cases. Is there a connection between the two body snatchers? Or is simple greed the answer to this one? And why is the enigmatic Englishman who calls himself Sherlock Holmes watching so carefully from the shadows?"

Merrill-Go-Round

Marcia Muller

2016

A Sharon McCone short story published electronically only.

"McCone’s first recorded short case—a private-eye story that is also a 'woman’s story,' in the best sense of that term."

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."

Someone Always Knows

Marcia Muller

2016

A Sharon McCone novel.

"Finally settled into their new home after losing their house in a fire, and fully established in their new shared offices, private investigator Sharon McCone and her business partner husband Hy are starting to feel comfortable. That calm is shattered when Hy's former colleague Gage Renshaw - a shady troublemaker who they had presumed dead - reappears, and it's unclear what he wants from his prosperous former associate. Meanwhile, Sharon has a new client with a desire to rid a derelict house he's just bought in the city's notorious Western Addition neighborhood from intruders, drug users, and thugs. However, the abandoned house holds its share of secrets, and soon Sharon is contending with more than a simple eyesore as she searches for the individual who is obsessed with destroying her life."

The Plague of Thieves Affair

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2016

A Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon novel.

"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. Roland W. Fairchild, recently arrived from Chicago, claims the man is his first cousin, Charles P. Fairchild III. Now, with his father dead, Charles stands to inherit an estate of over $3 million, if Sabina can find him and if he can be proved sane. Sabina is uncertain of Roland's motives but agrees to take the case. John, meanwhile, has been hired by the owner of the Golden State brewery to investigate the "accidental" death of the head brewmaster, who drowned in a vat of his own beer. When a second murder occurs and the murderer escapes from under his nose, John sets out to find the trail of the criminals-and to ensure he keeps his reputation for catching them. But while John is certain he can catch his quarry, Sabina is less certain whether she even wants to catch hers. Holmes has been frustrating but useful and even kind. She is quite certain he is mad but quite uncertain what will happen when he is confronted with the truth. Does every mystery need to be solved?"

The Color of Fear

Marcia Muller

2017

A Sharon McCone novel.

"When a knock on the door in the middle of the night wakes Sharon, she's wholly unprepared for the horrifying news: her father has been the victim of a vicious, racially-motivated attack. A nationally recognized Shoshone artist, Elwood had been visiting Sharon for the holidays, browsing for gifts in San Francisco's exclusive Marina district when he was set upon by a mob of angry young men. Now he lies in a coma, hovering between life and death. With little progress on the investigation from the overworked, short-handed police, Sharon resolves to track down Elwood's attackers herself. But when Sharon begins receiving hate-filled, racist threats from a shadowy group, it becomes clear that her pursuit of justice may be putting her own life in jeopardy."

The Dangerous Ladies Affair

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

2017

A Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon novel.

"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. That was fine with the detective, and when he was informed that some private letters were involved and Wrixton absolutely needed them back, there was nothing more Quincannon needed in the way of background. As with so many of San Francisco's elite, the bedroom doors never seemed to stay shut. That was the easy part; far more difficult was the matter of the dead courier, murdered most foully in a locked room within a locked room, creating a trail that will take John Quincannon through most of San Francisco's less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise."

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."

The Breakers

Marcia Muller

2018

A Sharon McCone novel.

"On a foggy summer morning, private investigator Sharon McCone receives a call from her former neighbors, the Curleys. Their usually dependable daughter Chelle hasn't been answering their calls for weeks. Would Sharon check on her? Sharon arranges to visit the building Chelle had been living in and rehabbing in southwest San Francisco. Once it was a nightclub and bar, she learns, and a favorite destination for the city's elite during Prohibition. But there's something sinister about the space, and Sharon quickly discovers why. Lurking behind a divider screen is a ghastly art gallery: portraits and caricatures of mass murderers, long ago and recent. Jack the Ripper. The Zodiac and Zebra killers of the 1970s. Charles Manson and his girls. Scott Peterson, who killed his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumped her body into the Bay on Christmas Eve. What, an alarmed Sharon wonders, was Chelle doing in this chamber of horrors? And where is she now?"