Frank Pasnow

Created by Frederick Zackel

“Nothing good happens after three a.m….”

In his one appearance to date, 2010’s Tough Town Cold City, “young, handsome and burly” San Francisco detective (“a relatively ordinary private eye,” according to his creator), FRANK PASNOW feels obliged to look into the savage murder of an old friend — and to see that he gets buried properly.

But as old friends and lovers rise to the surface, Frank realizes he never really knew his old pal at all.

Encouraged to write detective fiction by Ross Macdonald himself, Zackel is probably best known for Cocaine and Blue Eyes (1978), a classic private eye novel from the seventies which introduced San Francisco gumshoe Michael Brennen. Unfortunately, the book is now known mostly for inspiring an uninspiring TV movie starring O.J. Simpson. The author, though, has persevered, and written several more novels, including The Girl Under the Bridge (2020), with muckruking journalist Frank Corso, and Drunk in Blood (2021), featuring Cricket West, a Las Vegas private eye. He also written several short story collections, including The Bicycles Were Gravestones and Creepier Than a Whorehouse Kiss.

NOVELS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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