June Publications

Fans of Bill Pronzini will welcome this Shamus-winning author's Scenarios: The "Nameless Detective" Casebook, which collects 14 tales featuring his best-known creation. These range from Nameless's first appearance, "It's a Lousy World" (1968), to his most recent in a short story, "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" (2002) (Five Star, $25.95 284p ISBN 0-7862-4326-0).

The same publisher also offers two debut mysteries: Kinley Roby's Death in a Hammock, in which Florida PI Harry Brock must clear the name of an important conservationist accused of doing in Harry's neighbor ($25.95 266p ISBN -5396-7); and Barbara J. Ferrenz's Worse Than Death, in which Theodora Zed, an author of vampire novels, goes after the "Vampire Killer," a fiend targeting victims at horror conventions (Five Star, $25.95 250p ISBN -5395-9).

Deputy Sheriff Spider Latham, newly deputized, isn't sure what to do with the carnivore-picked female body he unearths from a ravine when the local funeral director and LDS bishop refuses to take the remains in Liz Adair's debut, The Lodger: A Spider Latham Mystery. You don't have to be a Mormon to appreciate the folksy (and macabre) humor. (Deseret, $13.95 paper 272p ISBN 1-57008-950-7)