Problems Solved

Today, Bill Pronzini is famed for his private-eye stories about the “Nameless Detective” and for his Shamus-award winning short stories, and Barry N. Malzberg is one of America’s premier science-fiction writers, but back in their salad days they collaborated on a number of stories, which have now become legendary. Many fans have heard of them, but very few have had the privilege of reading them — until now. Problems Solved collects all their crime and mystery collaborations, mostly written during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, and a few recent collaborations (including two new stories written especially for this volume). The stories range from suspense (“Night Rider”) to irony (“What Kind of Person Are You?”) to twists-in-the-tale (“Problems Solved”) to science-fictional detection, including three stories about an unnamed Luna Immigration Inspector. Others emphasize sports (“What’s a Chicago Cub?” asks an entrepreneur of the future), and one, “Another Burnt-Out Case,” is in Bill Pronzini’s words, “a weird comic Hitchcockian crime fantasy with a carnival setting, whose last two lines elicit gleeful chortles from both of us to this day.”