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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic (m) Pronzini, B. 2005 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS PRONZINI | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Bill Pronzini's "Nameless" detective has become one of the longest-lived, and consistently highly praised, private investigators in the annals of American crime fiction and the award-winning author proves, once again, that his skills
are unmatched.
Things were quiet in the San Francisco-based agency Nameless founded and his
partners, Jake and Vanessa were itching to get back to work. A deadbeat father needed to be found, and Vanessa needed to do some field work, so she took the file and headed out to keep an eye on the last known address.
Jake got to work on something much more personal...and dangerous. The Castro had become the stomping ground, literally, of two violent gay-bashers and the most recent victim was Jake's son's lover. Father and son are estranged, but maybe helping now would help them reconcile. That was Jake's thought when he started. For Nameless it was all a matter of letting everyone know that if they needed his help, he was there.
Jake was handling his situation but for Vanessa, things got out of hand. Her perp never showed up, but when she saw a man carrying a young girl into the house across the street, she knew something was wrong....and about to get worse, because she was going to investigate what was going on.
When she doesn't show up a few days later, Nameless feels a sinking in his gut: a few years ago he'd been kidnapped, shackled, and left to die in a cabin in the woods and something about Vanessa's disappearance echoed too loudly. When he discovers the house she'd investigated on her own and sees the words TAKING US TO A HOUSE IN THE WOODS scrawled on a closet wall, the echo became thunderous.
Now it was a race against time, and the clock had begun ticking before "Nameless" and Jake heard the starter's gun.
Author Notes
Bill Pronzini was born in Petaluma, California on April 13, 1943. His first novel, The Stalker, was published in 1971. He is best known for his creation of the Nameless Detective Mystery series, as well as several westerns and novels of dark suspense. He has been a full time writer since 1969. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories.
He has won numerous awards including three Shamus Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Mystery Writers of America. His book Snowbound received the Grand Prix de la Litterature Policiere, as the best crime novel published in France in 1988. Pronzini has established himself as a master of the Western novel as well as earning a name for himself in the dark fiction genre.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The fast-paced latest in the longest-running PI series currently published shows Pronzini at the top of his form. Nameless's beat is the mean streets of San Francisco-but it's a vastly different city from the one inhabited by Sam Spade and the Continental Op. Gay-bashers seeking a thrill brutally beat a young man ("The crack of bone breaking damn near gave him a hard-on") and stalk gay lovers in the Castro district. Enter three seasoned investigators: Jake Runyon, Tamara and "Bill" (Nameless finally has a first name). When Jake learns that the young man attacked was his son's lover, he takes on the case-on his own time and without pay, vowing to beat the night crawlers on their own turf. Pronzini handles the two main story lines and multiple, shifting points of view with aplomb while unsentimentally exploring violence against gays with understatement, righteous indignation and genuine pathos. The author's legendary pulp-collecting nameless investigator shines in a number of affecting scenes in which he visits a famed pulp writer, Russ Dancer, who's dying of cirrhosis and emphysema in a Redwood City hospital. Pronzini just doesn't get better than this. Agent, Dominick Abel. (Mar. 2) FYI: Pronzini created Nameless for a short story in 1969; he appeared in his first novel in 1971. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Old Man Nameless just keeps rollin' along. Sixty-one and supposedly semiretired, the Detective without a Name (Spook, 2003, etc.) still has the chops to go hard and fast when Tamara Corbin, his young, black, bright partner, gets herself between a rock and a wacko. While stalking a deadbeat dad, Tamara stumbles into something far worse--a slavering psychopath, a terrified little girl and a kidnapping with the darkest kind of potential. Around the same time, Robert Lemoyne, confused, angry and volatile, stumbles on Tamara, who before she knows it has a gun to her head and no wriggle room. Meanwhile, Jake Runyan, now the firm's star field investigator, is hip-deep in homophobes. His gay son, estranged and disaffected, has asked for a favor. Joshua's lover has been severely beaten, and Joshua wants his father to nail the bashers. In his careful, phlegmatic way, Jake begins a hunt interrupted by the news that Tamara has gone missing. Jake and Nameless hook up, and with the timely help of McCone Investigations (in a nice plug for Marcia Muller, Pronzini's wife) track the beast to his lair, sorting out the bat-swinging homophobes and several smaller fry in the best Nameless manner. Decently written and briskly paced. For fans of this longest of long-distance runners, though, the best news is that the close of his 29th leaves Nameless nowhere near breathless. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The Nameless detective is doing his best to settle into semiretirement after making his longtime assistant, Tamara Corbin, a partner in the agency and adding Jake Runyon, a former cop, as a field operative. However, some cases require Nameless' attention. Thugs are roaming the streets of San Francisco's Castro district, attacking gay men. Runyon's son's lover is one of the thug's victims, prompting Runyon and Nameless to investigate. Meanwhile Tamara, on a routine surveillance of a credit deadbeat, sees her subject carry something into his house that raises the hair on the back of her neck. The long-running Nameless series continues to evolve. With the novels no longer exclusively first-person narratives by Nameless, parallel plotlines have been introduced from multiple points of view, giving readers a chance to view Nameless as others see him. And, as always, the novels are never just about crime. Each of the three principals--and even the bad guys--deal with the family issues that have defined them. Another excellent entry in an outstanding series. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2005 Booklist