John Quincannon Books In Order

Publication Order of John Quincannon Books

Publication Order of Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery Books

Publication Order of Carpenter and Quincannon Collections

John Quincannon is the lead protagonist of the “John Quincannon” series of detective thrillers by Bill Pronzini. The first novel of the series was “Quincannon” that introduced former United States Secret Service agent John Frederick Quincannon and his partner Sabina Carpenter, that team up to start an investigations business. Pronzini the author was born in California in 1943 and showed early predilection to reading. Some of his favorite novels were the mystery digests and science fiction books that belonged to his grandfather and the pulp magazines to be found in second hand bookstore in San Francisco. Like “Nameless” his most popular character, Pronzini has a huge collection of digest and pulp magazines that contains nearly 3000 titles. He would later attend junior college and work selling magazines on the newsstand, part time civilian guard, car park attendant, office typist, sports reporter, warehouseman, and plumbing supplies salesman. Pronzini published his first fiction work “You Don’t Know What It’s Like” and by the time he turned sixty he was a full time writer. His first ever novel was the 1971 published “The Stalker”, after which he went on to publish pulp magazine and a range of fiction under his own name and other pseudonyms such as Alex Saxon, and Jack Foxx.

As an author, Bill Pronzini has mastered nearly everything in mystery as he has written men’s action, spy capers, adventure novels, locked-0room mysteries, historicals, and noirish thrillers such as his popular “Nameless” series of novels, that has been published for more than five decades and is still going strong. He has written several of the Michael Shayne short stories under the pseudonym Brett Halliday, and has worked with Marcia Muller, Colin Wilcox, Barry Wahlberg, and John Lutz. Outside his fiction work, he has also been busy as editor and writer, which would earn him a place in the Private Investigations genre hall of fame for his criticism of crime fiction. He has been involved in the compilation of great anthologies in the western, horror, detective, and crime fiction genres. For his efforts in writing crime fiction he has been the recipient of several Edgar awards and has had his novels translated into nearly thirty languages. Pronzini has won the Lifetime Achievement Award and a Shamus Award in 1997. He currently lives in Francisco with his writer wife Marcia Muller, she of the “Shanon McCone” series of novels. Over the years, the two have been involved in the writing of several novels and short stories.

The lead protagonists of the John Quincannon series of novels are John Quincannon and Sabina Carpenter. The two come together to form the Professional Detective Services of Carpenter and Quincannon in San Francisco. Quincannon makes his first appearance in the 1985 published “Quincannon”, where he is an alcohol addicted Secret Service agent looking to arrest a gang of forgers. He soon meets Sabina a female agent, who soon becomes a love interest fast friend and partner in the investigative business. He is so taken with her that for a moment he quits drinking so that he can be a better man for her. Quincannon would also appear in the second novel of the series “Beyond the Grave”, which Bill Pronzini coauthored with Marcia Muller his wife. Since then the two characters have appeared in several novels, the most prominent of which was the “John Quincannon” series of novels. While he works alongside Carpenter and a string of other characters in the novels, Quincannon is always the lead who makes most of the decisions. However, the man is haunted by a horrible past in which he made a huge mistake which has led him to heavy drinking to salve a guilty conscience. Over the course of the series he tracks down all manner of criminals and investigates criminal activity on behalf of his clients. But despite his proficiency he sometimes finds himself entangled in conspiracies and dangerous situations that threaten bloodshed and even death, if he makes any kind of mistake. The novels are written in a clean and spare prose that brings out the believable and relatable nature of the characters.

“Quincannon” the first novel of the John Quincannon series is an excellent detective mystery that has the lead down in the dumps. The retired Secret Service agent has been in low spirits ever since he had fired his gun and hit an innocent pregnant woman killing both child and mother. A year later, the man is still drowning his sorrows with alcohol, which does little to lift his mood. But now that one of his colleagues has been killed by a counterfeiting ring, his superiors need him to come in and try to track down the perpetrators, sober or not. However, once he gets into town, he immediately knows that staying sober will be one of the hardest things he has ever had to do. A young lady he meets bears a remarkable resemblance to the woman he had shot and killed with a stray a little over a year ago.

“Quincannon’s Game” is one of the most intriguing novels of the “John Quincannon” series of novels. John Frederick Quincannon a former intelligence officer with the US Secret Service comes together with one of the pioneer Pinkerton operatives Sabina Carpenter to form one of the best investigations firms in San Francisco. As one of the top agencies on the West Coast, their cases often has them traversing most of the Western seaboard throughout the late 19th century. Quincannon typically employs a Sherlock Holmes like wit to solve a series of locked room type murders, burglaries, and robberies. The second novel of the series opens to John getting a brief to track down some valuable artifacts that had been stolen during the 1846 “Bear Flag Rebellion of California”. The only clue in the case was an antique chest that had been found on sale in a pawn shop. John Quincannon investigates and trail sthe thieves of the valuable artifacts with an old report found hidden in one of the secret compartment s inside the Mexican wedding chest. the only thing he has to go on. In the search for these valuable artifacts, John finds that he is dealing with a ruthless gang that would not hesitate to maim or even kill to keep their ill-gotten gains.