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John Quincannon #1
Quincannon
Investigating a huge counterfeiting operation working out of Silver City, Idaho, a thriving cattle and mining town, treasury agent John Quincannon poses as an alcoholic patent medicine salesman to follow a trail of deceit, betrayal, and murder
175 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
2 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Bill Pronzini
625 books235 followersMystery 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 31, 2025
John Quincannon is a Secret Service agent of the US Treasury Department working in San Francisco in 1890. He is having his few regular whiskeys and beers at his favorite watering hole while he kills time before meeting an informant who has information about a local counterfeiting operation. Quickly we establish the fact that 1) this Quincannon character is a modern-minded detective but working in 1890 San Francisco with Holmsian scruples, social introversion, and a regretful past, and 2) he is a dangerously-close-to-falling-apart-but-currently-functional alcoholic.
When Quincannon's informant is murdered and leaves behind a clue with a name and mining camp in hand, he moves on to Silver City, crosses a few high-handed mining bosses while undercover, and meets the smart, beautiful, intimidating, and interesting Sabina Carpenter.
"Quincannon" was published in 1985 but as best I can tell, it is an unrelated precursor to the lighthearted historical mysteries starring Quincannon and Carpenter that the author Pronzini and his wife Marcia Muller wrote later in 2013-2020.
The protagonist Quincannon seems to be Pronzini's attempt to put his noir mystery hero the Nameless Detective in a western setting; they are both middle-aged bachelors with remorseful pasts and common addictions (Nameless cigarettes, Quincannon whiskey), and both hailing from San Francisco. Pronzini has a good share of both westerns and mysteries to his credit that are quite good.
Verdict: The counterfeiting mystery is a fun one and we get a good number of interesting suspects to consider while the relatable detective Quincannon navigates dangerous opium dens and silver mines in turn-of-the-century California.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
When Quincannon's informant is murdered and leaves behind a clue with a name and mining camp in hand, he moves on to Silver City, crosses a few high-handed mining bosses while undercover, and meets the smart, beautiful, intimidating, and interesting Sabina Carpenter.
"Quincannon" was published in 1985 but as best I can tell, it is an unrelated precursor to the lighthearted historical mysteries starring Quincannon and Carpenter that the author Pronzini and his wife Marcia Muller wrote later in 2013-2020.
The protagonist Quincannon seems to be Pronzini's attempt to put his noir mystery hero the Nameless Detective in a western setting; they are both middle-aged bachelors with remorseful pasts and common addictions (Nameless cigarettes, Quincannon whiskey), and both hailing from San Francisco. Pronzini has a good share of both westerns and mysteries to his credit that are quite good.
Verdict: The counterfeiting mystery is a fun one and we get a good number of interesting suspects to consider while the relatable detective Quincannon navigates dangerous opium dens and silver mines in turn-of-the-century California.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
February 27, 2015
This is a quick read, and first in a series. I rarely read westerns, but this is a western mystery that stands as a good introduction to the series, and one that I enjoyed reading. At least the next couple of books in this series are co-written by Bill Pronzini and his wife Marcia Muller, and I am a great fan of her separate series, the Sharon McCone books, and so am looking forward to those where they collaborated.
April 9, 2010
Top-notch, entertaining Western about a Secret Service with a booze problem but dtermined to root out a counterfeiting ring on the West Coast. I don't get to enough Westerns, my first favorite genre to read as a kid. We all want to be kids, again. This Western delivers on all cylinders.
November 28, 2012
#1 in the John Quincannon series. This 1985 book may deserve more than the three star rating I gave it but I read it after Beyond the Grave (1986)by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini featuring their series characters Elena Oliverez (#3) and John Quincannon (#2). The current book suffers somewhat from my having foreknowlege of the outcome of certain events. It is still an enjoyable book with a unique look at the life of a Secret Service agent tracking counterfeiters (koniakers, in the vernacular)in the Wild West of 1893.
John Quincannon, Secret Service agent, is troubled, and drinking heavily, after accidently killing a woman and her unborn child during a shootout with armed counterfeiters. Trailing a gang of counterfeiters to Silver City, ID he encounters Sabina Carpenter, who eerily reminds him of his dead victim.
John Quincannon, Secret Service agent, is troubled, and drinking heavily, after accidently killing a woman and her unborn child during a shootout with armed counterfeiters. Trailing a gang of counterfeiters to Silver City, ID he encounters Sabina Carpenter, who eerily reminds him of his dead victim.
March 16, 2017
Not bad - feel of the Old West. The author tied all the clues together very well. He also showed extra knowledge in regard to subjects that touched upon the story, such as counterfeiting & opium addiction.
August 16, 2021
He can’t kill the memory, but he killed the woman easily enough. Secret Service Agent John Quincannon would pass as a world-renown expert on self-medication since he accidentally shot to death a pregnant woman while chasing a gang of counterfeiters. He drinks to forget, and he can’t.
His job is all but over, but the agency needs him for an assignment tracking counterfeiters throughout the American west. Despite his drinking problem, he’s the best the agency has, and its leaders will give him one more chance to redeem himself.
Sabina Carpenter has come to the small Idaho town where Quincannon goes undercover as a snake oil salesman. She’s opened a hat shop, but she’s not a hat retailer any more than Quincannon is a patent medicine man. She works for the Pinkerton agency, a private detective company.
The two may well be looking for some of the same people. When Quincannon hears a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear, he has the information he needs to go after his quarry. It’s high time, too, since someone committed several murders in and around the Idaho mining town where this combination Mystery/Western occurs.
My mind inexplicably wandered a lot as I read this, and that’s not a good thing when the book is extremely short to begin with.
His job is all but over, but the agency needs him for an assignment tracking counterfeiters throughout the American west. Despite his drinking problem, he’s the best the agency has, and its leaders will give him one more chance to redeem himself.
Sabina Carpenter has come to the small Idaho town where Quincannon goes undercover as a snake oil salesman. She’s opened a hat shop, but she’s not a hat retailer any more than Quincannon is a patent medicine man. She works for the Pinkerton agency, a private detective company.
The two may well be looking for some of the same people. When Quincannon hears a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear, he has the information he needs to go after his quarry. It’s high time, too, since someone committed several murders in and around the Idaho mining town where this combination Mystery/Western occurs.
My mind inexplicably wandered a lot as I read this, and that’s not a good thing when the book is extremely short to begin with.
August 7, 2018
A highly entertaining western mystery setting up the partnership of a world-weary Secret Service agent and a female Pinkerton agent as they chase counterfeiters, business schemers and ruthless miners and cowboys gone wrong.
July 26, 2020
John Quincannon, Agent with the Secret Service based in San Francisco. Fighting the nightmare of a accident while on duty and the alcohol that helps the pain. Wonderful sense of place mystery. 3.5 stars
November 8, 2022
This was an interesting Western novel. The author does a tightrope act between including the elements expected in a Western while avoiding all the tropes to varying degrees of success.
August 10, 2025
An AA (yea that AA) driven mystery set in the 1890s,
decent fast read, I entered it with low expectations other than to pass time,
it did that but nothing more.
decent fast read, I entered it with low expectations other than to pass time,
it did that but nothing more.
February 12, 2013
Despite the shortness of this novel I liked it very much. Mr. Pronzini developed compelling characters and designed an excellent plot line and even a good subplot. Quincannon is a sympathetic hero despite his drinking or perhaps even because of it. The villains were a bit two-dimensional but I'm hoping he remedies that in the following books which I certainly intend to read. The history of the area is touched upon but never becomes the main directive. No, this one is character-driven and it was enjoyable to watch the hero try to maintain his cover while still attempting to locate the center of the illegal action. Pretty good. Definitely good enough to make me want more.
October 23, 2013
A tight, fast novel about U.S. Secret Service agent John Quincannon, a man haunted by a horrible mistake in his past and ravaged by booze. He comes to Silver City on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters, and gets caught up in a town-wide conspiracy that can only end in fast action and bloodshed. Pronzini is amazing at spare, clean prose, and has a knack for terrifically believable characters.
March 15, 2014
I do not usually read Westerns, and Pronzini did not change my oppinon.
Quincannon is an alcoholic former secrect service agent given one last chance by his superiors to hunt down a gang of forgers.
The only reason I read the book, is that it introduces Sabina Carpenter, a character that is not historically accurate.
Quincannon is an alcoholic former secrect service agent given one last chance by his superiors to hunt down a gang of forgers.
The only reason I read the book, is that it introduces Sabina Carpenter, a character that is not historically accurate.
June 23, 2008
Pronzini is a hack. I mean that in a good way. He delivers the goods year after year in books that hold your interest while you're reading them but which you forget immediately thereafter. I hope he dies a very rich man.
March 31, 2011
good western
July 13, 2014
I've been reading short stories of this pair for awhile so I enjoyed reading their original meeting story.
February 21, 2016
I always enjoy Bill Pronzini's books. I have been reading the current ones with Sabina and Quincannon in SF so it was great to read the book where they met!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews