An anthology of stories with crime solving twosomes - it's a winning idea. Unfortunately, the editors couldn't decide if they wanted to present an historical review or a collection that holds up to today's standards and expectations. Some of the stories are true winners, capable of delighting contemporary audiences as much as they did the original readers. Some stories, however, are seriously dated...not just in setting, but in mindset and perspective. While it is possible to ask respect for those pieces from an historical point of view, it is harder to claim that they make for compelling reading today.

This book presents a varied selection of stories featuring crimes solved by partners, by autbors ranging from Edgar Allen Poe to Julie Smith. Although the quality of the stories varies depending on the skill of the author in using the short story form, they are all interesting. The introductory essay preceding each story gives a good summary of the author's work as a whole, not just those works which feature the duo in the story. Especially valuable is the long Introduction to the book. which discusses the many partnerships in crime-solving which appear in works too long to appear in this collection as well as those which do. I found this work to be enjoyable and a wellspring of leads to authors I had overlooked.

This anthology has a number of stories from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, which are well outside the range of time when anything which could reasonably be called pulp fiction was published. Some of these stories are bad beyond belief. The editorial introductions lack all discernment, and the editors can't seem to tell the good from the unbelievably horrendous. Some of the stories are good, notably the one by David Goodis, but overall the quality is low. The book seems to have been thrown together to capitalize on the movie Pulp Fiction. You'd be well advised not to waste your time or your money on this.

Kinda bizarre that the editors of this book claim pulp's true Golden Age was not the one commonly thought of as its Golden Age (30s/40s), but the time immediately following it (50's/60s). Some of the stories in this anthology were even written as recently as the 80's. The 80's?! A bit questionable, but they're entitled to their opinion.

There are a few really amazing stories in this collection (That Stranger, My Son; Don't Twist My Arm... interesting they're both about dodgy father/son relationships) some slighty above average ones (In A Small Motel; Horn Man; The Frigid Flame) some precious ones, ie, with a twist or 'punchline' at the end (High Stakes; Tick Tock), and some that were just meh (Cop Without A Shield; Terrorists). But what really disturbed me was that a few of the selections in this book are, shall we say, suspect. There was one story in particular that was so painfully boring and lifeless it was absolute torture to finish (Leigh Brackett's 'I Feel Bad Killing You'...despite the little blurb accompanying her story, Chandler she most definitely ain't). But I guess every anthology is bound to have a few clunkers.

All in all, I discovered some talented writers through this collection, which made up for the not-so-great moments. If anything, it's a great introduction to some little-known authors.

Excellent introduction to the pulp fiction writers of the middle third of the 20th Century. This has a nice variety of authors and an excellent blend of styles and stories. Well worth the price of admission.

I'm currently devouring every book in Bill Pronzini's fantastic Nameless Detective series, in order. So far, they've all been terrific, but I must admit that I had to force myself to finish this one. Is it because we actually learn the Nameless Detective's name! Is it that the final plot twist is foreshadowed to the point where a six-year-old could guess what was coming? The story is told in alternating points of view by Pronzini's PI and Wilcox's police detective; that technique worked far better in Pronzini's "Double" (which he wrote with his wife, Marcia Muller). "Twospot" was a disappointment, but I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

I read this book many years ago, and I'm reviewing it only to say that a previous reviewer had said that the book is not as good as others in the Nameless Detective series. I think it is a very strong addition. It would probably be better if the reader first read some of the Lt. Hastings novels by Collin Wilcox to get a feel for his character. Also, Nameless doesn't really have his name revealed. Hastings calls him Bill, but nowhere in the novel does it reveal that this is his true name. Sharon McCone, Marcia Muller's character calls him Wolf, but nowhere does she say that this is his real name. The Nameless Detective novels are my favorite private investigator novels, and the Lt. Hastings novels are my second favorite police procedural novels (second only to Ed McBain). I do agree that "Double" is a better novel, but "Twospot" is worth the reader's time.

One reason I like the Nameless Detective series-of which this is an example-so much ,is the way the character ages and develops as the series goes on ,and the humanisation of the character resulting from this.Nameless is no superman,and he is feeling every one of his 58 years in this solid ,if somewhat slow developing novel.
He and his partner Eberhardt are employed by a lawyer to discover evidence that will help get a man named Thomas Lujack cleared of a vehicular homicide charge.The main witness against Lujack is an embittered blue collar blowhard named Pendarves,and things look bad for Lujack when Pendarves claims that Lujack tried to run him down too.Lujack soon turns up dead and when Pendarves goes missing it looks like he is the culprit.As Nameless carries on digging into the case it becomes tangled up with a scam involving illegal immigration and the exploitation of cheap labour ,a scam from which the late Mr Lujack and his surviving brother reaped rich rewards.
The story did not begin to move beyond the functional till around midway when it gathered pace and intensity building towards a powerful,hostage taking climax.
The title is significant and the meaning made explicit late in the book-all the main characters are in the throes of a life crises ,pushing them towards the margins of and in some cases over the edge .Nameless is lucky -he is able to recover from a traumatic period in his life ,and Kerry his girl friend works through a domestic crisis.Others are not so fortunate and their lives veer away from the comfort zone and into a kind of emotional abyss,from which drink and a blind lashing out are the only escapes
As in other tales in the series there is a vein of compassion for the marginalised and expoloited which adds weight and substance to its sturdy PI plot. Most people in the book remind us of Thorteau's dictum that the mass of mankind have lives of quiet desperation.San Francisco and its less touristy parts in particular are well realised.
Not the best starting point for the series and among its weaker entries but devotees of the author and/or genre will probably not complain unduly

This is the weakest Nameless detective novel I've read.

A couple of college kids go missing. Nameless traces them to a town composed almost entirely of bigots. Without giving anything away, I can only say that once a possible motive for murder is discovered (fairly early in the novel), the rest is slow going.

Though Pronzini clearly has plenty of anger towards racism, he has no real insight to offer, and I didn't have much interest in seeing which of his mob of cardboard villains is guilty of murder.

For a much better Nameless Detective novel, try Hardcase.

The Sentinels was my first exposure to Pronzini's "Nameless detective" novels. "Nameless" narrates the story without revealing his name. His namelessness is neither here nor there unlike Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" movies and neither adds nor subtracts from the telling of the story which, in itself, is a fair detective novel.

In The Sentinels, the narrator travels to Northern California to investigate the disappearance of a college girl. While in the small town where she was last seen, he runs afoul of the locals and a group known as The Sentinels that may or may not have caused the girl's disappearance. Who was the girl travelling with? Why would anyone want to harm her? These questions make for an excellent mystery and needless to say the detective eventually gets the answers at considerable personal risk to himself. All in all it's a good detective story if somewhat familiar.

I did have a few problems with the novel. It seems to me that it's a cliched cheap shot to present all rural people as xenophobic bigots. Similarly presenting fundamentalist Christians as hypocrites is unfair and mean spirited. The novel also deconstructs its own theme that people should be tolerant of those who are different and have different values. Pronzini clearly doesn't show the same tolerance for small town rural people and fundamentalist Christians by presenting them in such a bad light.

I listened to the unabridged taped version which was read with appropriate style and inflection by John Michalski.

I just found out that this is the same book as "With An Extreme Burning" by the same author. Apparently, this is the paperback version and "With An Extreme Burning" is the hardcover version. I have both versions and when I checked the paperback (published in December 2000), there was no mention of the fact that it was previously published under a different title.

I enjoy Mr. Pronzini's work very much and, although I haven't yet read this particular book, I am disappointed that Mr. Pronzini would allow this book to be published under two different titles without informing the reader of that fact. I thought they were two different novels and if I had known they were the same, I would never have gotten the paperback.

The only reason I gave it a one star rating is because I couldn't post this comment without giving it some kind of rating, even though, as I said above, I haven't yet read the book.

Why are Bill Pronzini's books under the category of Horror? As a fan of the genre, I am fed up with mystery authors being thrown into this category. While we're at it can we eliminate V.C Andrews as well? And anything written in the last 3 years by Dean Koontz and/or Stephen King. (Ah but when they wrote to scare, no one can compare!) Lastly on this topic, I received a book the other day from the "Leisure Horror Book Club" that was touted as "Tales of the Dark." Sure, it was more like "Tales of Irony," and the first short was a romance!! Don't get me wrong I read a lot of different genres, but when I'm looking for a good spooky story don't give me crank phone calls. Speaking of which, I stopped reading "Tormentor" midway, I passed it on to a friend and realized I had gotten to Chapter 17 and didn't really care about the story or the characters! I was again duped into reading Pronzini's "Masques" and that at least held my interest towards its conclusion.

Dix Mallory, just beginning the healing process of getting over the sudden death of his wife in a car accident, is tormented by a prank caller claiming to have had an affair with the woman prior to her death. This tormentor also chooses to harass Dix's longtime friend Francesca and her daughter Amy. The harassment escalates to murder as Dix and Francesca try to find out who among their supposed friends is the tormentor.

Bill Pronzini's novel feels like an early book given a polish and republished, not unlike what Dean Koontz had been doing with his back stocked library. But the results here, while entertaining (Pronzini is a fine writer), feel outdated, considering all the changes in communications technology to better deal with these situations. Reading the book is like slipping into a pair pajamas and lounging in front of the television to watch one of those generic made for cable suspense thrillers when you feel like doing nothing else. An adequate time passer for non-discriminating thriller fans on rainy three day weekends.

bill pronzini's carpenter and quincannon lacks clear focus and thought. While i read the book in hopes of being entertained, the various detective stories pronzini writes about are as elementary and outdated as the very events in time that take place. While he utilizes a clear and consice writing style, one that incorporates a kind of formalistic, European-Anglo type, the content of a suspenseful, thought-provoking narrative definitely lacks. While he writes about various detective stints that his San Francisco detective agency encounters, the stories lack a good climax and fail to keep the reader guessing as professional detective stories often do.