Bill Pronzini: 104 books

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.

It was fifteen years ago when the big, sort-of-sloppy, brew-loving P.I. appeared on the scene, dazzling readers with keen solutions to seemingly unsolvable crimes. And just as his disheveled demeanor gave no hint of the brilliant mind that lay behind it, his lack of a moniker said nothing about his rising popularity with mystery readers everywhere.

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...

He's just gotten some bad news, and its impact has made him immobile and fearful. He's always known that the racking cough was not just something that was going to go away, that the ache in his chest was indicative of something more serious. And now he's found out that he has a lesion on his lung...

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...

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 has lost his detective’s license and will soon be out of money. His friend, police lieutenant Eberhardt has lost his wife to another man. The two of them are consoling one another when Eberhardt answers his door. Gunshots follow, and both Eberhardt and Nameless are seriously wounded. While...

A weekend fling turns into a week-long manhunt as the Nameless Detective's last solo case involves him in a cat and mouse chase through San Francisco's Japantown that ends in a confusion of murder, rape, and suicide. It is Friday, and on Monday, Nameless will grudgingly welcome Eberhardt, a...

"Nameless" had seen enough death in his years; spending his time watching someone drive to several funerals a day, funerals for people he didn't know, was more than he could take. And he had a non-professional problem of his own: his relationship with his wife, Kerry, had hit a wall and...

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...

He is ruthless and amoral, and he feels nothing but fury and a burning desire for revenge upon "Nameless," the man he believes is responsible for ruining his life. So he plots a horrible, lingering death for his victim.One night, "Nameless" is abducted by his unknown enemy, taken...

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 likelihood of murder--especially as the players still alive become more and...

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.

When Great Western Insurance hires the Nameless Detective to investigate an accidental death in a small northern California town, it looks like a routine case—one he expects to solve swiftly so he and his lady friend, Kerry Wade, can take a much needed vacation. But no such luck. Nameless lands...