Bill Pronzini Books In Order

Publication Order of Nameless Detective Books

Publication Order of Nameless Detective Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Nameless Detective Collections

Publication Order of John Quincannon Books

Publication Order of Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery Books

Publication Order of Carpenter and Quincannon Collections

Publication Order of Charlie Chan Books

Publication Order of Academy Mystery Books

Publication Order of Oxman and Tobin Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of New Frontiers Collection Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Bill Pronzini is a well known American author who likes to write his novels based on the Mystery and Thriller genres. He was born on April 13, 1943 in Petaluma, California in the United States. He was an avid reader right from his childhood days and was fascinated by his grandfather’s mystery and science fiction digest at the age of 12. After that he used to frequently purchase second hand pulp magazines from the bookstores in San Francisco and seemed intrigued by their stories. In a few years, Bill was able to collect around 3000 pulp magazines. When he completed his studies at the junior college, Bill began working as a newsstand clerk, sports reporter, car-park attendant, plumbing supply salesman, office typist, and a warehouseman. Bill also served as a part time civilian guard for transporting prisoners, for a U.S. Marshall. Apart from the mystery and thriller novels, Bill also likes to write novels on the Science Fiction, Literature and Fantasy themes. Bill is particularly famous for his works in detective fiction and is famous for writing down the Nameless Detective series of novels. Other than being a novelist, he is also an anthologist and has compiled over 100 collections, many of which are based on the western, science fiction and mystery stories.

Throughout his writing career, Bill has used a number of pseudonyms for writing different categories of novels. Some of his pen names include Jack Foxx, Alex Saxon, William Hart Davis, Brett Halliday, Romer Zane Grey and William Jeffrey. Bill was born as William John Pronzini. He has married 3 times in his life, firstly with Laura Patricia in the year 1965, whom he divorced after one year. Second time Bill married Brunhilde Schier in the year 1972. The two got separated in the year 1985 and eventually got divorced. In the end, Bill married Marcia Muller for the final time in his life, who herself is a mystery writer. Their marriage took place in the year 1992 and the two of them are still living together happily. Bill has collaborated with Marcia on 4 novels from 1984 to 2015 as well as on a number of anthologies. Author Bill Pronzini began his writing career in the year 1971 with his first novel, The Stalker. During the same Bill began writing his most famous work, the Nameless Detective series. Since then, Bill has written and published around 42 books in the series as well as several short stories. The unique feature of the series is that although it depicts the typical criminal mysteries, the amount of violence depicted in the novels of the series is quite less. As the short stories are concerned, Bill has written more than 300 of the. Many of his published short stories have featured in Argosy and Adventure magazines, which are considered as the first pulp magazines of America. The prosperous career of Bill Pronzini as an author has allowed him to receive many prestigious awards and nominations for his achievements in the mystery genre. His first novel was nominated for the Edgar Award in the year 1972 for being the Best First Mystery Novel. In the year 1982, he won the first Shamus Award in the Best Private Eye Novel category. Then he was also nominated for the Edgar Award in the following year in the category of Best Biographical or Critical listings. During the next year, Bill won the Shamus Award for his short story Cat’s Paw in the category of Best Private Eye Short Story, and another short story called Bones was also nominated for the same award in the year 1986. In the year 1987, Bill won the Lifetime Achievement Shamus Award called The Eye in the mystery genre. This is considered to be the highest accolade to be awarded in the mystery genre. In the same year, Bill and Marcia together won their first Macavity Award in the Critical Work category for their collaboration novel 1001 Midnights. They also won the same award in the same category for their other novel Son of Gun in Cheek in the year 1988.

Bill won the Anthony Award and a nomination for the Shamus Award in the year 1989. He was also awarded the Grand Prix de Literature Award in the same year. These were followed by a number of other nominations and awards such as the Anthony Award, the Edgar Award and the Shamus Award in the following years up to 2010. Because of his unique style of writing mysteries, Bill was considered as a master of the genre. He seems to have touched every form of mystery in his writings, including the locked-room mysteries, noirish thrillers, adventure novels, historicals, men’s action and spy capers. Other than his wife Marcia, Bill has also collaborated with a few of his fellow authors such as Barry Walhberg, John Lutz and Colin Wilcox. Bill’s non-fiction works are also quite effective to earn him a place in the Hall of Fame of the Private Investigator genre. The novels written by Bill have been translated into a number of languages and have been published in more than 30 countries all over the world. Apart from being an expert mystery writer, Bill Pronzini is also an avid reader and editor. He has edited around 80 short stories in his 20 year career. He was hoping to end his famous Nameless Detective series after the 26th novel was published, as he felt that he had written enough novels for the series. However, he received an exciting offer from a publisher and he could not refuse it. Hence, he continued with the series. In the early 1970s, Bill used to travel to Europe and has resided in West Germany and Majorca or a short while. As of today, Bill lives happily in San Francisco along with his wife Marcia Muller.

One of the novel series written by Bill is the John Quincannon series, which consists of 3 novels published between the year 1985 and 2005. The series deals with the 19th century private eye named John Quincannon from San Francisco, California. The first novel of the series was published in the year 1985 by the Ballantine Books publishing house and was titled ‘Quincannon’. The opening plot of the novel shows Secret Service agent John Quincannon as trying to recover from his grief in which he had killed a young woman and her unborn child with his stray bullet. However, he seems to have found some joy in his life. He is asked to go on a mission to destroy a counterfeiting ring which was responsible for the killing one of his colleagues. He has tried hard to come out of his grief and stay sober for the mission. However, he is required to deal with another woman who reminds him of his last victim. The second novel of the series was titled ‘Beyond the Grave’. It was published in the year 1986 by the Carroll & Graf publishing house. The plot of the novel deals with the investigations of detective John Quincannon and the Chicana sleuth named Elena Oliverez, who seems to an amateur in the profession. The novel shows the mystery of San Francisco, which is prevailing from 1894 up to 1986. The novel is very well written by the collaborative effort of Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller.