Femme : a "Nameless Detective" novella

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Title:

Femme : a "Nameless Detective" novella

Author:

Pronzini, Bill author.

ISBN:

9781587672675

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

Baltimore, MD : Cemetery Dance Publications, 2012.

Physical Description:

175 p. ; 20 cm.

Series:

"Nameless Detective" mysteries.

Subject Term:

Nameless Detective (Fictitious character) -- Fiction.

Private investigators -- California -- San Francisco -- Fiction.

Femmes fatales -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction.

Genre:

Mystery fiction.

Summary:

The Unnamed Detective has been in business for many years, but the only femme fatales he's known were in fiction or the movies. That is, until his bail bondsman friend Abe Melikian introduces him to Cory Beckett. Nameless has spent more time as a detective than Cory has breathed-- but she's brought some new and terrible angles to the concept of evil...

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	MYSTERY PRO	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Femme fatale. French for "deadly woman." You hear the term a lot these days, usually in connection with noir fiction and film noir. But they're not just products of literature, film, the folklore of nearly every culture. They exist in modern society, too. The genuine femmes fatale you hear about now and then are every bit as evil as the fictional variety. Yet what sets them apart is that they're the failures, the ones who for one reason or another got caught. For every one of those, there must be several times as many who get away with their destructive crimes... In the thirty years the Nameless Detective been a private investigator, he has never once had the misfortune to cross paths with this type of seductress... but in Femme he'll meet Cory Beckett, a deadly woman who has brought some new angles to the species. New¿and terrible.

Author Notes

Bill Pronzini was born in Petaluma, California on April 13, 1943. His first novel, The Stalker, was published in 1971. He is best known for his creation of the Nameless Detective Mystery series, as well as several westerns and novels of dark suspense. He has been a full time writer since 1969. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories.

He has won numerous awards including three Shamus Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Mystery Writers of America. His book Snowbound received the Grand Prix de la Litterature Policiere, as the best crime novel published in France in 1988. Pronzini has established himself as a master of the Western novel as well as earning a name for himself in the dark fiction genre.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

At the start of this hard-edged novella from MWA Grand Master Pronzini, the unnamed PI hero of his long-running series (Hellbox, etc.) muses on femme fatales. After more than 40 years of detecting, Nameless never expected to cross paths with one, until his bail bondsman friend, Abe Melikian, introduces him to 28-year-old Cory Beckett ("A deadly woman who brought a couple of new twists to the species"). Melikian wants Nameless to track down Beckett's younger brother, Kenneth, who has jumped bail on a charge of stealing a diamond necklace worth $20,000. The jewelry belonged to the alcoholic wife of San Francisco union leader and power broker Andrew Vorhees, who employed Kenneth to tend to his yacht. The devious Beckett's scheme and persona aren't unusual enough to make her that memorable a villainess, but few will be able to forget the image of her revealed on the last page. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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