Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome (USA 2014)

From the Publisher:
A New York Times Notable Book: A woman's suicide leads a man to a Nevada mining town -- and a nest of poisonous secrets -- in this "top-notch thriller" (Publishers Weekly).

There is something about the sad woman eating alone night after night at the Harmony Café that intrigues San Francisco CPA Jim Messenger. Unfulfilled himself, Jim feels a kinship with her -- and later, when she commits suicide, he resolves to find out why. His search leads him to Beulah, a middle-of-nowhere mining town in the Nevada desert, where hatreds run deep, where secrets are as venomous as a rattlesnake bite, and where a stranger asking too many questions might inexplicably disappear. Still, in this dusty, barren landscape, Jim feels completely alive. And he's not going anywhere until he uncovers the truth, even if it rips the whole town apart.

Richly atmospheric and peopled with achingly human characters, Blue Lonesome is a crime novel as tense and coiled as a rattler ready to strike and as dark and hypnotic as the lonesome desert night.

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome. Open Road Media, ISBN 9781480485013 (April, 2014), eBook, 959 KB (ca. 214 p.), $9.99.

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome (UK 2002)

From the Publisher:
Jim Messenger is a CPA who hates his job, loves jazz, and can't forget a woman he has seen eating at the Harmony Café. She goes by the name of Janet Mitchell, and when he introduces himself, her only comment is, "It won't do you any good." When she commits suicide, Messenger is driven to find out why. Her name is only the first of the lies he uncovers. In "historic Beulah," Nevada, secrets coil like rattlesnakes ready to strike, and suffering lies like a suffocating blanket over lives put on hold. Starting with one slender clue, Messenger embarks on a search for the truth that becomes a rite of passage. By the end, lives have been changed, a horrible murder brought to light, and a quiet, little town irrevocably torn apart.

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome. Canongate, ISBN: 9781841952581 (July, 2002), 207 p., £6.99 (?).

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome (UK 2001)

From the Publisher:
Jim Messenger is a CPA who hates his job, loves jazz, and can't forget a woman he has seen eating at the Harmony Café. She goes by the name of Janet Mitchell, and when he introduces himself, her only comment is, "It won't do you any good." When she commits suicide, Messenger is driven to find out why.

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome. Canongate, ISBN: 9781841951300 (July, 2001), 207 p., £9.99.

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Jim Messenger is a CPA who hates his job, loves jazz, and can't forget a woman he has seen eating at the Harmony Café. She goes by the name of Janet Mitchell, and when he introduces himself, her only comment is, "It won't do you any good." When she commits suicide, Messenger is driven to find out why. Her name is only the first of the lies he uncovers. In "historic Beulah," Nevada, secrets coil like rattlesnakes ready to strike, and suffering lies like a suffocating blanket over lives put on hold. Starting with one slender clue, Messenger embarks on a search for the truth that becomes a rite of passage. By the end, lives have been changed, a horrible murder brought to light, and a quiet, little town irrevocably torn apart.

Bill Pronzini: Blue Lonesome. Walker & Co., ISBN: 9780802775610 (June, 1999), 207 p., $8.95.