Scenarios

Nameless Detective #41

by Bill Pronzini

A Shamus Award-winning Author 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. They include "It's a Lousy World," where Nameless proves that a friend did not commit the crime he was accused of; "Dead Man's Slough" and "The Ghosts of Ragged-Ass Gulch," which take him out of San Francisco into the hinterlands; and "Souls Burning," where he tries to help an old friend make one last try at setting things right. Available only in Mystery 4.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Detective

431 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scenarios is not an essential “Nameless” book, even for those of us who read every “Nameless Detective” novel. Why? Because, if you read each novel, you’ve seen many of these stories before. That is because this “Nameless Detective” Casebook”-as the book’s subtitle designates it—is full of individual adventures that Bill Pronzini later incorporated into his novels. The novelette “The Ghosts of Ragged Gulch” was later revised and incorporated into the novel Nightshades, “La Bellezza delle Bellezze” expanded and altered into “Epitaphs,” “The Big Bite” used as an introduction to Bleeders, and the “Seasons of Sharing” used as a holiday conclusion to Spook. Those of you—like me—who wish to write your own novels and delight in ways others will construct theirs will find this fascinating. The rest of you may well be content to encounter these stories in their final, cannibalized form.

Also, of the ten other short works here, three of the best (“It’s a Lousy World, “The Pulp Connection,” and “Dead Man’s Slough”) were included earlier in “Nameless”’s first short fiction collections, Case Files. So if you’ve already read Case Files, you’ve read them too.

Of the remaining seven, each is enjoyable, but only Bomb Scare--which I believe will haunt me for awhile—is memorable.

It’s up to you. I’m reading all the “NameIess” novels in order, and--if I had it to do over again—I’d skip this for now, read the remaining fifteen books in the series, and then—if I still had a hunger for Nameless—I would go ahead and read Scenarios.

But then … I’d hate to miss Bomb Scare.

So many books, so little time.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently purchased this collection of 14 short stories featuring the "Nameless Detective", a private detective working in San Francisco on a variety of different cases. I've read several novels in this series, but it's been a while and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed them. The stories are clever and fun to read. Some are light and others deal with more serious topics.

As with any collection of stories, I liked some more than others, but I enjoyed all of these well-written short stories. Many are 4 and 5 star stories and I would rate this collection 4 stars overall. Fans of the series as well as readers unfamiliar with the author can equally enjoy this collection of short mystery stories that have interesting plots and plenty of substance.

[Debra Jeakins · Rating 5 out of 5]

SCENARIOS by BILL PRONZINI AND NARRATED BY NICK SULLIVAN are short stories mostly featuring Mr. Pronzini's character the NAMELESS DETECTIVE I have, in other version heard some of the stories told here but am more than happy to once again listen to the re-runs and the new ones I have not heard before. Nick Sullivan does a very good job with narration


SCENARIOS is well worth the listen to not only fans of the Nameless Detective but anyone who appreciates a great set of short stories.

I received this audiobook free in exchange for an honest review..

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite many years of reading this author, I just came across this book. Great stories and great writing style. Most of the short stories were new to me but each one had me enthralled right to the end. Great collection.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read 2013

[Michelle Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this short stories collection, well written and thoughtful.

[Macel Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the selections here, I already saw in other anthologies. But the new ones were great.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a list of all the books (in order) Happy Reading.

1971 The Snatch Random House
1973 The Vanished Random House
1973 Undercurrents Random House
1977 Blowback Ramdom House
1978 Twospot Putman
1980 Laybrinth St. Martin's Press
1980 A Killing In Xanadu Waves Press
1981 Hoodwinked St. Martin's Press
1982 Scattershot St. Martin's Press
1982 Dragonfire St. Martin's Press
1983 Bindlestiff St. Martin's Press
1983 Casefile St. Martin's Press
1984 Quicksilver St. Martin's Press
1984 Nightshades St. Martin's Press
1984 Double St. Martin's Press
1985 Bones St. Martin's Press
1985 Grave Yard Plots St. Martin's Press
1886 Dreadfall St. Martin's Press
1988 Shackles St. Martin's Press
1988 Small Fellonies St. Martin's Press
1990 Jackpot Delacorte
1991 Breakdown Delacorte
1992 Quarry Delacorte
1992 Epitaths Delacorte
1993 Demons Delacorte
1995 Hardcase Delacorte
1996 Spadework Crippen & Landru
1996 Sentinels Carroll & Graf
1997 Illusions Carroll & Graf
1998 Boobytrap Carroll & Graf
1999 Sluths Five Star
1999 Duo Five Star
2000 Crazybones Carroll & Graf
2002 Bleeders Carroll & Graf
2003 Spook Carroll & Graf
2003 Scenarios Five Star
2005 Nightcrawlers Forge
2006 Mourners Forge
2007 Savages Forge
2008 Feaver Forge
2009 Schemers Forge
2010 Betrayers Forge
2011 Camouflage Forge
2012 Hellbox Forge
2012 Kinsmen Cemetery Dance
2012 Femme Cemetery Dance
2013 Nemesis Forge

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mostly excellent short-story collection containing some really fine writing. One tale, "Souls Burning," may be one of the best short stories I have ever read.

The stories in this book were originally published over a span of more than 30 years, and it's interested to see how they reflect the changes in the mystery genre as the years progress. A few of the early stories in particular suffer a bit from the constraints of the Mystery genre, with clues peppered into the story so obsessive puzzle-solvers can get excited and "solve" the crime. The second story in the book typifies this: first published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the story relies upon wordplay with one character's name to reveal the murderer. It's a stretch at the least. Sometimes these clues are way too obvious. Two jackets instead of one? Okay, that guy did it. Blond hair instead of red? That's no red herring. But most of the time Pronzini escapes this cliche and gives us a detective worthy of the job title.

Like all too many eBook editions of old titles, this has obviously been scanned and OCR'ed from a printed edition -- and it shows. The book is peppered with odd characters the scanner didn't recognize and replaced with question marks. Quite a few other scanning errors / typos lurk throughout the book. One that sticks in my mind is what should have been the words "tom cat" that show up as "torn cat." The author deserved better.

[Barry Martin Vass · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is interesting on several levels. Scenarios is a collection of short stories, some of which have been revised and expanded into novels, some which have been written for different markets (one was a novelette published only in Japan some thirty years ago). It gives you a good insight into the writing process, and why writers make some of the choices they do. Bill Pronzini is a mystery writer, and a damn good one, and he has been writing his "Nameless Detective" novels for decades. And if you're a fan of the mystery/detective genre these are well worth reading. He always has some edge, some slant on human frailties and insights into the human character, which make these stories both believable and readable. And of course he is the partner of Marcia Muller, the outstanding author of the Sharon McCone detective novels. One of the highlights of this series of short stories is when the two writers combine their skills and put their two main characters together in "Season of Sharing", and we actually learn the name of the "Nameless Detective". Gasp!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable collection of short stories(and one novella) featuring Pronzini's "Nameless Detective" (his name's Bill, except in the one collaboration with Marcia Muller, where he's referred to as Wolf.)

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Pronzini tells a good story and this book is full of good short stories.