Coyote And Quarter-Moon: Western Stories

Pronzini offers a rich variety in the elements of his storytelling in fifteen short stories. Joining the familiar figures of lawmen and gunfighters are some seldom-featured characters such as a traveling apothecary, a coffin trimmer, and a prison warden.

Devil’s Brew, an adventure of the 1890s San Francisco private investigator John Quincannon, takes place largely in a San Francisco brewery where an investigation into the theft of a formula for brewing steam beer quickly turns into a murder mystery. The Arrowroot Prison Riddle concerns the seemingly impossible disappearance of a hanged man from the gallows in front of several witnesses. Fergus O'Hara, Detective deals with the looting of a gold shipment aboard a Sacramento riverboat in the early years of the War Between the States. Angel of Mercy and The Coffin Trimmer are dark Western tales with supernatural overtones.

Christmas Gifts takes place during a blizzard and won the Paul A. Witty Award for short fiction in 1999. Cave of Ice, written with Marcia Muller, is about the discovery of a primeval ice cave. The title story is a contemporary tale based in Oregon featuring Jill Quarter-Moon, a full-blooded Umatilla Indian, and the rescued Doberman she adopts and christens Coyote. As an agent for the Animal Regulation Agency, Jill looks into Coyote’s history and suspects something shady is going on at the local kennel. It may cost her and Coyote their lives, but she needs to find answers.