A Wasteland of Strangers [Paperback]

Bill Pronzini (Author), Michael Seidman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999 | Series: Walker Mystery

The author of Blue Lonesome, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, has created another stunning novel of suspense. Set in a small, isolated town in Northern California, A Wasteland of Strangers is a fast-paced, memorable story about the arrival of a stranger--and the murder of a beautiful, lonely woman.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

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. Other books by this excellent writer include Blue Lonesome and--from his Nameless Detective series--Hardcase. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Beneath the surface in the northern California resort community of Pomo swirls a viper's nest of desire, jealousy, loneliness, and crime. When a sexual assault occurs, the obvious suspect is an outsider, John Faith; after all, the sheriff doesn't like Faith's interest in a sexy local widow he fancies himself. Neither does a boozy reporter, who launches a yellow-journalism campaign against the outsider. When the widow is murdered, the town explodes. Pronzini, the author of the extraordinary "Nameless" detective series (see starred review, p.1667), rotates the first-person narrative among the main characters as if they were sitting around a campfire and picking up the story where the previous teller left off. It's a difficult technique to execute successfully, but Pronzini pulls it off by providing each narrator with a unique voice and personal context. The result, as in Stephen Dobyns' Church of Dead Girls , is a thriller in which a small town's fear of the unknown drives the action. Highly recommended. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 257 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802775608
• ISBN-13: 978-0802775603
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,777,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clothes make the Man, November 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Wasteland of Strangers (Hardcover)

So very inventive and wonderfully written. The author manages to present each character in three dimensions and true to form. This is a modern vesion of Gottfried Keller's "Clothes Make the Man", showing how outer appearances can create strong prejudice. And, sad to say, conformity is still a must in today's culture. In some European countries, police even set up a raster of neighborhoods, according to the motto: "You don't wear jeans, you are suspect". Big Brother is prejudiced.