The Body Snatchers Affair

The Body Snatchers Affair: The latest in the Carpenter and Quincannon historical mystery series from Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Two missing bodies and two separate investigations take Carpenter and Quincannon from the heights above San Francisco Bay to the depths of Chinatown's opium dens. For John Quincannon, this is a first: searching a Chinatown opium den for his client's husband, missing in the middle of a brewing tong war set to ignite over the stolen corpse of Bing Ah Kee. Meanwhile, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, unsure of the dark secrets her suitor might be concealing, searches for the corpse of a millionaire, stolen from a sealed family crypt and currently being held for ransom. With the threat of a tong war hanging over the city (a war perhaps being spurred on by corrupt officials), Carpenter and Quincannon have no time to lose in solving their cases. Is there a connection between the two body snatchers? Or is simple greed the answer to this one? And why is the enigmatic Englishman who calls himself Sherlock Holmes watching so carefully from the shadows? The Carpenter and Quincannon Mysteries: #1 The Bughouse Affair #2 The Spook Lights Affair #3 The Body Snatchers Affair #4 The Plague of Thieves Affair #5 The Dangerous Ladies Affair #6 The Bags of Tricks Affair At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In The Bughouse Affair, this first of a new series of lighthearted historical mysteries set in 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations. Sabina's case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady "dip" who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places. Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate's lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee. The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes. Fans of Marcia's Muller's bestselling Sharon McCone novels and Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective series will applaud this and future exploits from the annals of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. The Carpenter and Quincannon Mysteries: #1 The Bughouse Affair #2 The Spook Lights Affair #3 The Body Snatchers Affair #4 The Plague of Thieves Affair #5 The Dangerous Ladies Affair #6 The Bags of Tricks Affair At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Stolen Gold Affair is the latest charming historical mystery in Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Bill Pronzini's detective series. In response to a string of gold thefts in a Mother Lode mine, Quincannon goes undercover as a newly-hired miner to identify and capture the men responsible. Meanwhile, Sabina finds herself not only making plans for her and Quincannon’s wedding, but also investigating both an audacious real estate scam and an abusive young man's villainous secret. The Carpenter and Quincannon Mysteries: #1 The Bughouse Affair #2 The Spook Lights Affair #3 The Body Snatchers Affair #4 The Plague of Thieves Affair #5 The Dangerous Ladies Affair #6 The Bags of Tricks Affair #7 The Flimflam Affair #8 The Stolen Gold Affair At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

For the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, stopping extortionists is not only grand, but excitingly lucrative. When a pleasant afternoon s bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention. The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist's first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker s real problem is something he doesn't want to reveal. That was fine with the detective, and when he was informed that some private letters were involved and Wrixton absolutely needed them back, there was nothing more Quincannon needed in the way of background. As with so many of San Francisco s elite, the bedroom doors never seemed to stay shut. That was the easy part; far more difficult was the matter of the dead courier, murdered most foully in a locked room within a locked room, creating a trail that will take John Quincannon through most of San Francisco s less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise. The Dangerous Ladies Affair is the next thrilling installment in this charming historical mystery series from MWA Grand Masters Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. "

In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light. The seemingly impossible disappearance of her body creates an even more serious problem for the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. Sabina hadn't wanted to take the assignment, but her partner John Quincannon insisted it would serve as entrée to the city's ultra rich and powerful. That means money, and Quincannon loves the almighty dollar. Which is why he is hunting the bandit who robbed the Wells, Fargo office of $35,000. Working their separate cases (while Sabina holds John off with one light hand), the detectives give readers a tour of The City the way it was. From the infamous Barbary Coast to the expensive Tenderloin gaming houses and brothels frequented by wealthy men, Quincannon follows a danger-laden trail to unmask the murderous perpetrators of the Wells, Fargo robbery. Meanwhile, Sabina works her wiles on friends and relatives of the vanished debutante until the pieces of her puzzle start falling into place. But it's an oddly disguised gent appearing out of nowhere who provides the final clue to both cases—the shrewd "crackbrain" who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes. Fans of Marcia's Muller's bestselling Sharon McCone novels and Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective series will applaud The Spook Lights Affair and future exploits from the annals of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. The Carpenter and Quincannon Mysteries: #1 The Bughouse Affair #2 The Spook Lights Affair #3 The Body Snatchers Affair #4 The Plague of Thieves Affair #5 The Dangerous Ladies Affair #6 The Bags of Tricks Affair At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Bill Pronzini’s riveting western mystery, The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave, takes on the modern world with old-fashioned violence--and his Peaceful Valley is anything but... Nothing much happens in Peaceful Valley, Montana. And that’s just how Sheriff Lucas Monk likes it. Aside from the occasional drunken brawl or minor disturbance out on the reservation, he hasn’t had to resort to his fists or sidearm in years. That is, until mid-October, 1914, when the theft of a wooden cigar store Indian sets off a crime wave like nothing Lucas has ever seen. Teenager Charity Axthelm goes missing, Reba Purvis’s housekeeper is poisoned with cyanide Reba is sure was meant for her, and Lucas’s gut tells him that this is only the beginning. It’s not long before the first corpse shows up, bringing the peace in the valley to a thundering end. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Bill Pronzini debuts a thrilling western with expert storytelling and a mysterious hero who will appeal to Pronzini's Nameless fans. Not all the folks who roamed the Old West were cowhands, rustlers, or cardsharps. And they certainly weren’t all heroes. Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He’s a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything (or anyone) could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to unlock the town’s secrets. Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.