Femme (eBook)

Femme: An Original "Nameless Detective" Novella
by Bill Pronzini

About the Book:
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 or film, the folklore of nearly every culture. They exist in modern society, too. The genuine femme fatales 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 has 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.

In a career spanning nearly half a century, Bill Pronzini has published more than ten million words of fiction and nonfiction. Among his 77 novels are 36 in the iconic Nameless Detective series, the most recent of which is Hellbox (just published). His numerous awards include the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, presented in 2008, and three Shamuses and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America.

"At the start of this hard-edged novella from MWA Grand Master Pronzini, the unnamed PI hero of his long-running series 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... few will be able to forget the image of her revealed on the last page."
— Publishers Weekly

"There is a maturity in the writing of Femme that one only achieves through experience. Femme has a well-thought out plot and features incredibly interesting characters. I was hooked from chapter one and couldn’t put the book down until I reached the shocker ending – and what a shocker that ending was! I never even saw it coming! With his latest installment in the series, Bill Pronzini shows just why the Nameless Detective is such a popular mystery/suspense series — intriguing characters, interesting case and unexpected plot twists that will keep you guessing. I certainly hope he keeps this series going — I'm definitely hooked!"
— G-POP, Melissa Minners