A new thriller in the tradition of Pronzini's Snowbound, "a shivery, spine- tingling it-could-happen suspense story... a real rouser." -Publishers Weekly The rich and powerful Jackman family had always had an obsession with successful gamesmanship-whether in the parlor, the bedroom, or in national politics. When Senator David Jackman plans an escape from Washington pressures through a long, idyllic weekend with his lover on the family's lavish island estate, he has no reason to suspect that he will leave buried there forever the man he had become. No sooner do Jackman and Tracy arrive than...

Things are heating up in Big Coulee. Unorthodox road agent Horse-shy Halloran, who got his name because horses always do him dirt, has been seen in town buying women's clothing. The gold miners' association is about to ship $70,000 of gold dust. The brutal and fearsome Burgoyne brothers are in the neighborhood. And Wells Fargo agent Samuel Quarternight has fallen in love with the banker's daughter, Faye. Halloran just wants to make off with the gold, but he gets far more deeply involved with this cast than he'd like and becomes an unwilling and thoroughly despised hero. "A skilled writer...

Secret Service agent John Quincannon has found little joy in his life since the day his stray bullet killed an innocent young woman and her unborn child. Still in mourning a year later, Quincannon seeks his solace at the bottom of a jug of sour mash. But he'll have to buck up-and sober up-for his next mission: The Service needs him to bring down a major counterfeiting ring responsible for the death of one of his colleagues. And staying sober won't be easy when there's a young lady in town who's a dead ringer for his late victim... A new novel of frontier justice from the award-winning author...

"Pronzini is a pro." -The New York Times A freelance charter pilot on uneasy terms with the police but greatly respected by the underworld, Dan Connell turns down a bundle of cash to smuggle a jade carving of a bird out of Singapore-which doesn't make the thieves or the authorities happy. When an old cohort is killed, Connell discovers that only by finding the bird can he avoid his own murder.

THEY ARE DEAD. THEY ARE HIDEOUSLY DEAD. FIVE WOMEN ARE DEAD. A HOMICIDAL MANIAC HAS KILLED FIVE WOMEN. Three down when Ferrara, a psychiatrist, and Valerie Broome, New York feature writer, arrive in the Adirondacks to see when the local Jack the Ripper will kill again. Fatalities and failed assaults ensue. Is it Steven Hook, failed actor, alcoholic, track loser? Or Jack Cross, local newspaperman, with too much mother and a girl who's pregnant? They have their reasons to rage against women...

"Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror." -Robert Ludlum As we follow Rex Sackett ("The Metaphor Kid") on his way to the top in that great spectator sport of the future, hack-writing, we realize that this a fast-moving, ribald parody of the writing profession. From the moment the Head Editor waves his red flag to the second the typewriting stops and a victor is chosen, every reader will be cheering at the sidelines of Prose Bowl. Pronzini is the master of the shivery, spine-tingling it-could-happen suspense story." -Publishers Weekly