A varied collection of stories by Shamus Award-winner Bill Pronzini.Rich in character, incident, and exceptional storytelling, this collection of Oddments is the best evidence of why the Private Eye Writers of America honored Bill Pronzini with their Lifetime Achievement Award. The fourteen selections include “The Highbinders,” where 1890’s detectives Quincannon and Carpenter venture deep into Chinatown’s opium dens to solve the murder of a client. And a man gets involved in the “Wishful Thinking” of his neighbor, who has a habit of confessing to killing his wife.Trailing suspense from the depths of the ocean to the planet Venus and on to Death Row. Pronzini rounds out the collection with a trio of twisty tales: A penchant for a harmless bar game called “Liar’s Dice” leads to danger for the narrator: an incorrigible prankster plays the ultimate joke in “The Dispatching of George Ferris,” only to find the joke is on him: and the Nameless Detective manages to turn the tables on a blackmailer in “The Big Bite.”