SNOWBOUND / GAMES continues Stark House Press’ reprinting of out-of-print classics, here with two from the highly prolific Bill Pronzini. Starting out the collection is the aptly tilted essay “A Biased Introduction” from Marcia Muller, Pronzini’s wife. She goes into detail of how these were the first two novels of his she ever read, years before they even knew each other. Muller goes into detail of how well these two books work so well together.

The second introduction essay is Bob Randisi’s “A Rose by Any Other Nameless,” where Randisi recalls talking to Pronzini years ago about trying to read all of his output. The latter replied, “Good luck,” and when you look at the bibliography page, you’ll understand why.

From 1974, SNOWBOUND is the longer of the two novels here, dealing with three robbers and a failed department store heist. The guys figured they were in for a huge payday, only to come up with the short end of the stick. Thinking quick, they run off to a tiny town in Nevada, where they can lay low until the heat is off. But one of the crooks is still fuming from the bad score, and is desperately trying to figure out a new plan.

Pronzini peppers the rest of the story with varied and rich supporting characters. The mayor of the town is sleeping with a girl many years his junior. A man named Zachary Cain lives like a hermit and just wants to drink himself to death. There’s also a paranoid cafe owner, and the mayor’s wife, who knows her husband is cheating, yet still tries to keep a brave face.

That’s when the idea hits one of the crooks that since the other job went bad, why not just rob this whole little town, especially when they get snowed in? Pronzini balances the action so well in the book. There is never a lull or a wasted word in this story whatsoever. No character is given the brush off just to fill the plot; everyone has a purpose and is well-defined.

Meanwhile, 1976’s GAMES reads like a speeding bullet. You feel yourself in the narrator’s mindset, going a mile a minute. The story is all told from one point of view, unlike SNOWBOUND, which jumps from character to character.

Sen. David Jackman is planning a getaway with his mistress Tracy to an island off the coast of Maine, where he spent summers with his old man. Dad was also a senator in his time, as well as a taskmaster, instilling life lessons that would be beneficial in David’s later years.

Once they arrive on the island, things seem a bit different. First, they discover his father’s gun collection has gone missing. Then they find an animal that was disemboweled … and not from the looks of another animal. This throws Tracy and Jackman into a bit of a panic, with the idea of getting off the island sooner than later, only to discover that their boat has gone missing.

The suspense builds throughout. Pronzini never goes for the quick shot that some authors would jump onto, either. He just layers the tension slow and steady, with Jackman trying to figure out what is going to happen next, only to have things kick into overdrive once Tracy is taken and Jackman realizes he is being tested somehow with this bizarre game.

But Pronzini is not an author that will let the reader take anything for granted, we see Jackman slowly become mad with the idea of the game entailing that he is somehow fighting a mythical creature from the pages of Lewis Carroll. The ending delivers in spades, but some readers will wish for a slightly different outcome.

For me to tell you that Stark House Press never disappoints with its output is an understatement, and this twofer is further proof. –Bruce Grossman

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