Camouflage, by Bill Pronzini

Why did I stop reading this series? Things have changed appreciably since I stopped: the agency has...wait, there IS an agency now! With more employees. The cases here involve finding a client's ex-wife to sign some papers, except it turns into a WHOLE OTHER deal involving murder. And one of his employees is investigating the apparent abuse of his girlfriend's child. The cases don't intersect, but they do parallel each other in terms of divorce wreaking havoc, and the injection of new blood helps a lot.

No Rest for the Dead (ed. by Andrew F. Gulli and Lamia J. Gulli)

This is one of those serial novels that I'm such a sucker for: each chapter written by a different author, including some Big Names along with some folks I've never heard of. The story centers on the execution of a woman convicted of murdering her husband ten years ago by stuffing him into an Iron Maiden. And again we have the necessary suspension of belief, because there is no way a wealthy woman with no skeletons would lose every appeal on a case like this and be executed inside 2 years of her crime being committed.

BUT ANYWAY. Her husband was a skunk, a womanizer, a thief, a con-man...definitely deserved to die. But from the beginning you're sure she didn't, couldn't, do this. So, what really happened? Ah, that's what these 26 authors duke out in the pages. Pretty fun.

Dragonfire, by Bill Pronzini

Nameless and his former police partner are having a cookout when someone knocks on Eberhart's front door and then shoots him and Nameless as well, as collateral damage.

Of course, this must be resolved, and eventually it is. Nameless finds out what Eb was working on in Chinatown and hunts down both the shooter and the reasons behind the shooting, all before Eb wakes up from his coma.

Somewhere in the City, by Marcia Muller

A wonderful mixture of stories, not all of which are based on Sharon McCone. There are a couple of supernatural tales, one or two historical stories, and a lot of background around the collective in which McCone works. Nice.

Scattershot, by Bill Pronzini

Nameless, marking time till something happens. Can a PI have a personal life? This one is intent on messing up his, that's for sure. Also, he is involved in three cases, all of which have gone sour and he has become an active suspect in each case.

Hoodwink, by Bill Pronzini

Another Nameless book, in which he goes to a pulp magazine convention which instigates two locked-room murders. And he gets shot at. And he figures everything out, of course. Oh, and he moves his office to a nicer building and gets a new girlfriend.

Twospot, by Bill Pronzini and Collin Wilcox

A mystery/suspense novel told from two points of view: Pronzini's Nameless character, and Wilcox's Hastings (presumably a series character of his, though I wouldn't know).

The story revolves around a family winery and a visiting dignitary (ahem) in San Francisco. Very much a product of the era in which it was written: 1978.

The Art of Detection, by Laurie R. King (on CD)

Good. A little Sherlockian, a little modern. Clever, but also timely. In fact, it's rather too timely: it takes place around the few weeks that the city of San Francisco allowed same-sex marriage.