This so-called novel in MWA Grandmaster Pronzini's consistently superior Nameless Detective series (Vixen, etc.) consists of two new novellas and two previously published short stories set in the San Francisco Bay area. In the titular novella, the character known as Nameless investigates a car accident in the Russian River area when he stumbles upon two bodies. It looks like a fatal gun battle over marijuana and money, but when the wife of one of the victims asks him to investigate further, the action zigs and zags to an unexpected and satisfactory conclusion. In "Grapplin'," street musician Charles Anthony Brown searches for his long-lost niece, only his name isn't Brown, and she isn't his niece, and the story is a study in compassion. "Nightscape" is a deftly handled study of how two unrelated things can come together. "Revenant" explores how an evil man can use a belief in the occult to his advantage. Pronzini is economical with his details, providing just the right ones to bring each scene to life. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

This collection of two original novellas and two reprinted short stories is a treat for fans of Pronzini's iconic detective hero, Nameless. The first novella, Zigzag, finds the semiretired Nameless taking on what seems to be a routine traffic-accident case in which the two principals disagree on the circumstances. Interviewing witnesses in Sonoma County, Nameless follows a lead that turns up two dead bodies. Routine accident investigation? Not so much. In Revenant, the other novella, Nameless is hired by Peter Erskine, a stock trader, who swears he and his wife are being stalked by the vengeful ghost of a man who died as the result of a car accident in which Erskine was involved. Nameless isn't buying the ghost part but feels the danger may be real. The two short stories are equal grabbers, but that's no surprise: Pronzini could probably write a compelling 50-word mystery. Pronzini has won virtually every award available to mystery writers, and this collection shows why.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2016 Booklist

Two brand-new novellas and two reprinted short stories test the semiretired Nameless Detective's ability to close casesand the gentle reader's taste for new wine in old bottles. The two brief reprints both involve serendipitous discoveries. In "Grapplin'," Nameless (Vixen, 2015, etc.), who's signed on to help a long-estranged uncle search for his missing niece, is surprised to solve a 50-year-old double murder along the way. The even shorter "Nightscape" finds Nameless and his operative Jake Runyon sitting in a diner hoping to catch the scent of a deadbeat dad and ends with their bagging "two violent, abusive fathers in the space of about three minutes." The title novella follows an even curvier path. Nameless, working a rare case himself out in Rio Verdi, begins by collecting statements from witnesses to an auto accident involving San Francisco businessman Arthur Clements, then takes a macabre turn when his search for one more witness leads him to the bodies of two men who've apparently shot each other in an argument over drugs. Newly widowed Doreen Fentress, convinced that her Ray wasn't that kind of man, hires Nameless to find out the truth about him, and to her sorrow, that's exactly what he does. The client in "Revenant," suburban stockbroker Peter Erskine, is literally spooked by the effects of another car crash. Elza Vok, the Lithuanian Satanist who plowed into Erskine's car, cursed him on his deathbed, and now Erskine and his ailing wife, Marian, are both convinced that an evil spirit has assumed Vok's physical form to haunt them. Pronzini tries to end on the same ambivalent note as John Dickson Carr's classic novel The Burning Court but doesn't quite pull it off. Proficient but routine work. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.