BILL PRONZINI “A Cold Foggy Day.” First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine April 1978. Collected in Small Felonies (St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1988).

   The story begins as two men arrive in San Francisco from Boston, with the younger noticeably having trouble with the cold. He is a native of Boston; his companion is from San Fransisco and doesn’t find anything about the weather worth complaining about. They are obviously working as a team and are on their way to find someone. From their tough guy attitude and demeanor, we soon begin to assume they have the worst in mind for the person they are looking for.

   And that is the crux of the tale, and I cannot tell you more about that. Who is it they need to find, and why?

   What I would like to tell you, though, and that is what I can do, is that while Pronzini is best known for his stories about, well, a certain Nameless PI, he is a writer worth reading for his many many non-series tales, of which this is one. He uses clear and uncomplicated language to tell the stories he tells — each word precisely the correct one — to keep his readers following along. As you will with this one, as much as I.

>   Guaranteed.