Quincannon

John Quincannon #1

by Bill Pronzini

Secret Service agent John Quincannon has found little joy in his life since the day his stray bullet killed an innocent young woman and her unborn child. Still in mourning a year later, Quincannon seeks his solace at the bottom of a jug of sour mash. But he'll have to buck up-and sober up-for his next mission: The Service needs him to bring down a major counterfeiting ring responsible for the death of one of his colleagues. And staying sober won't be easy when there's a young lady in town who's a dead ringer for his late victim... A new novel of frontier justice from the award-winning author acclaimed for his "stylish writing" (Publishers Weekly) and "unerring eye" (Kirkus Reviews).

Genres: Westerns, Mystery, Fiction, Historical Mystery, Detective

166 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Quincannon is a Secret Service agent of the US Treasury Department working in San Francisco in 1890. He is having his few regular whiskeys and beers at his favorite watering hole while he kills time before meeting an informant who has information about a local counterfeiting operation. Quickly we establish the fact that 1) this Quincannon character is a modern-minded detective but working in 1890 San Francisco with Holmsian scruples, social introversion, and a regretful past, and 2) he is a dangerously-close-to-falling-apart-but-currently-functional alcoholic.

When Quincannon's informant is murdered and leaves behind a clue with a name and mining camp in hand, he moves on to Silver City, crosses a few high-handed mining bosses while undercover, and meets the smart, beautiful, intimidating, and interesting Sabina Carpenter.

"Quincannon" was published in 1985 but as best I can tell, it is an unrelated precursor to the lighthearted historical mysteries starring Quincannon and Carpenter that the author Pronzini and his wife Marcia Muller wrote later in 2013-2020.

The protagonist Quincannon seems to be Pronzini's attempt to put his noir mystery hero the Nameless Detective in a western setting; they are both middle-aged bachelors with remorseful pasts and common addictions (Nameless cigarettes, Quincannon whiskey), and both hailing from San Francisco. Pronzini has a good share of both westerns and mysteries to his credit that are quite good.

Verdict: The counterfeiting mystery is a fun one and we get a good number of interesting suspects to consider while the relatable detective Quincannon navigates dangerous opium dens and silver mines in turn-of-the-century California.

Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick read, and first in a series. I rarely read westerns, but this is a western mystery that stands as a good introduction to the series, and one that I enjoyed reading. At least the next couple of books in this series are co-written by Bill Pronzini and his wife Marcia Muller, and I am a great fan of her separate series, the Sharon McCone books, and so am looking forward to those where they collaborated.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top-notch, entertaining Western about a Secret Service with a booze problem but dtermined to root out a counterfeiting ring on the West Coast. I don't get to enough Westerns, my first favorite genre to read as a kid. We all want to be kids, again. This Western delivers on all cylinders.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

#1 in the John Quincannon series. This 1985 book may deserve more than the three star rating I gave it but I read it after Beyond the Grave (1986)by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini featuring their series characters Elena Oliverez (#3) and John Quincannon (#2). The current book suffers somewhat from my having foreknowlege of the outcome of certain events. It is still an enjoyable book with a unique look at the life of a Secret Service agent tracking counterfeiters (koniakers, in the vernacular)in the Wild West of 1893.

John Quincannon, Secret Service agent, is troubled, and drinking heavily, after accidently killing a woman and her unborn child during a shootout with armed counterfeiters. Trailing a gang of counterfeiters to Silver City, ID he encounters Sabina Carpenter, who eerily reminds him of his dead victim.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad - feel of the Old West. The author tied all the clues together very well. He also showed extra knowledge in regard to subjects that touched upon the story, such as counterfeiting & opium addiction.

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

He can’t kill the memory, but he killed the woman easily enough. Secret Service Agent John Quincannon would pass as a world-renown expert on self-medication since he accidentally shot to death a pregnant woman while chasing a gang of counterfeiters. He drinks to forget, and he can’t.

His job is all but over, but the agency needs him for an assignment tracking counterfeiters throughout the American west. Despite his drinking problem, he’s the best the agency has, and its leaders will give him one more chance to redeem himself.

Sabina Carpenter has come to the small Idaho town where Quincannon goes undercover as a snake oil salesman. She’s opened a hat shop, but she’s not a hat retailer any more than Quincannon is a patent medicine man. She works for the Pinkerton agency, a private detective company.

The two may well be looking for some of the same people. When Quincannon hears a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear, he has the information he needs to go after his quarry. It’s high time, too, since someone committed several murders in and around the Idaho mining town where this combination Mystery/Western occurs.

My mind inexplicably wandered a lot as I read this, and that’s not a good thing when the book is extremely short to begin with.

[Nancy Cook-senn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly entertaining western mystery setting up the partnership of a world-weary Secret Service agent and a female Pinkerton agent as they chase counterfeiters, business schemers and ruthless miners and cowboys gone wrong.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Quincannon, Agent with the Secret Service based in San Francisco. Fighting the nightmare of a accident while on duty and the alcohol that helps the pain. Wonderful sense of place mystery. 3.5 stars

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting Western novel. The author does a tightrope act between including the elements expected in a Western while avoiding all the tropes to varying degrees of success.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 2 out of 5]

An AA (yea that AA) driven mystery set in the 1890s,
decent fast read, I entered it with low expectations other than to pass time,
it did that but nothing more.

[Sand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the shortness of this novel I liked it very much. Mr. Pronzini developed compelling characters and designed an excellent plot line and even a good subplot. Quincannon is a sympathetic hero despite his drinking or perhaps even because of it. The villains were a bit two-dimensional but I'm hoping he remedies that in the following books which I certainly intend to read. The history of the area is touched upon but never becomes the main directive. No, this one is character-driven and it was enjoyable to watch the hero try to maintain his cover while still attempting to locate the center of the illegal action. Pretty good. Definitely good enough to make me want more.

[Heath Lowrance · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tight, fast novel about U.S. Secret Service agent John Quincannon, a man haunted by a horrible mistake in his past and ravaged by booze. He comes to Silver City on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters, and gets caught up in a town-wide conspiracy that can only end in fast action and bloodshed. Pronzini is amazing at spare, clean prose, and has a knack for terrifically believable characters.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not usually read Westerns, and Pronzini did not change my oppinon.
Quincannon is an alcoholic former secrect service agent given one last chance by his superiors to hunt down a gang of forgers.
The only reason I read the book, is that it introduces Sabina Carpenter, a character that is not historically accurate.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pronzini is a hack. I mean that in a good way. He delivers the goods year after year in books that hold your interest while you're reading them but which you forget immediately thereafter. I hope he dies a very rich man.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

good western

[Harry Addington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading short stories of this pair for awhile so I enjoyed reading their original meeting story.

[Sharon Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy Bill Pronzini's books. I have been reading the current ones with Sabina and Quincannon in SF so it was great to read the book where they met!