Bill Pronzini??? Who is Bill Pronzini?
I just finished [I]Wasteland of Strangers[I] by this author, and it was one of the best all round books I've read in a long time. The form of telling the story is new to me, but I settled in soon enough. I challenge you to figure out who the perpetrator is before the end. I was convinced I had it solved half way through; I wasn't even close.
The Amazon.com review;
Here's a fine modern mystery that would have made a wonderful 1950s B movie. Robert Mitchum would have been perfect as the hulking stranger John Faith, who arrives one day in the faded Northern California resort town of Pomo with a mysterious agenda. Who but Paul Douglas could have played the tough but fair-minded police chief? And the part of Storm Carey, the gorgeous widow feeding her grief with rampant sex, would have been a natural for Jan Sterling or Elisabeth Scott. Bill Pronzini both uses and overcomes these film noir images as he skips from voice to voice to tell a tricky, compelling story.
Highly recommended.
Denny