Jackpot

Nameless Detective #17

by Bill Pronzini

The Nameless Detective investigates the curious suicide of his friend's brother--a man who had won a fortune at a Lake Tahoe casino prior to his death--and uncovers a complex scam in the world of high stakes gambling and mob-run casinos

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

213 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Nameless Detective adventure after Shackles, the novel in which our hero was shackled to a wall, left to die in a cabin in the woods, and Nameless has changed. He is quick to anger, subject to panic attacks, and more willing to break rules and take justice into his own hands. He has no longer his former “nice guy” self; perhaps he never will be again.

The plot begins when Kerry, Nameless’ lady friend, brings a colleague from work who needs some answers. Allyn Burnett’s brother David has taken his own life—a pill overdose—but she is convinced he is the not the type to commit suicide. Besides, the circumstances surrounding it were so suspicious: David winning a two hundred grand jackpot one week, going stoney broke a week later, and committing suicide a week after that. Nameless starts looking into David’s background, and find himself stonewalled at every turn. And then . . . the serious mob types begin to show up, and Nameless becomes convinced that—suicide or not—something suspicious is happening here.

The plot is absorbing, and the resolution—when the bad guy gets what’s coming to him—is particularly ingenious and satisfying. But the best the about the book is the changes it reveals in Nameless, the way those changes influence his work, and how he and girlfriend Kerry cope with the difference.

Don’t get me wrong, Nameless is still a good guy. But he his now a good guy with an edge: less predictable, more dangerous. All in all, I think the change makes him a more interesting detective.

[Carla Remy · Rating 5 out of 5]

From 1990
A very good mystery involving gambling and the mafia. I appreciated the bad memories plaguing Nameless after what happened to him in Shackles.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I love about this series is that things that happen in earlier books have repercussions in later ones. The horrors that Nameless went through in the last book are still mentally with him in this one. He's been changed, in both subtle and obvious ways.

This remains one of the best detective fiction series I've ever read.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 2 out of 5]

"[...] Pyramid Lake was there ahead - [...] pale blue, glass smooth, somehow unreal, so that in the first moment you saw it, it struck you as a desert mirage; surrounded by more of the stark brown hills, with a bare pyramid-shaped island [...]"

The above quote represents one of the few good things I can say about Bill Pronzini's Jackpot (1990). This installment of the famous series about an unnamed private detective directly follows Shackles which I reviewed a week ago. Indeed there are numerous passages in the novel that refer to the previous story. That's wasted on me since, unlike many readers, I do not particularly like continuity in plots. I have found this novel slightly weaker than not very strong Shackles.

A secretary in the advertising company where Mr. Unnamed's girlfriend works asks him to investigate the apparent suicide of her brother David. He just won $200,000 jackpot in Reno, lost it all betting on sports, and then took an overdose of sleeping pills. The police say it was certainly suicide, but the sister is not convinced; her brother was planning to marry his girlfriend soon and seemed very happy overall.

On the trail of David's best friend the detective travels to Lake Tahoe and visits a mountain cabin on Fallen Leaf Lake (a real-life beautiful lake located almost exactly on the California-Nevada boundary, one mile south of Lake Tahoe), where he finds first hints that the events might have been more complicated than they seem.

The detective joins forces with a Paiute Native American, John Wovoka - a noble, modern-times warrior for justice - to fight some very bad guys. The whole 'good vs. evil' shtick feels much overdone. The good guys are too good, and the bad ones too bad. Mr. Pronzini begins reminding me of John Shannon with his politically correct clichés, well-meant but inept. The denouement would be interesting if it did not rely on a tired literary device: finding a tape recording that clarifies the events. And the escapade where the detective and his sidekick mete punishment to the bad guys is over-the-top implausible.

The descriptions of mountain and lake vistas caught my attention better than the formulaic plot. When I first saw Pyramid Lake (located in Nevada, northeast of Lake Tahoe) I clearly remember the exact same impression as the author states in the epigraph quote: "pale blue, glass smooth, somewhat unreal." The "desert mirage" simile is particularly apt. More descriptions of nature would make the read stronger. Maybe I am just a little tired of Mr. Unnamed. Have to take a break for a month or two.

Two stars.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a list of all the books (in order) Happy Reading.

1971 The Snatch Random House
1973 The Vanished Random House
1973 Undercurrents Random House
1977 Blowback Ramdom House
1978 Twospot Putman
1980 Laybrinth St. Martin's Press
1980 A Killing In Xanadu Waves Press
1981 Hoodwinked St. Martin's Press
1982 Scattershot St. Martin's Press
1982 Dragonfire St. Martin's Press
1983 Bindlestiff St. Martin's Press
1983 Casefile St. Martin's Press
1984 Quicksilver St. Martin's Press
1984 Nightshades St. Martin's Press
1984 Double St. Martin's Press
1985 Bones St. Martin's Press
1985 Grave Yard Plots St. Martin's Press
1886 Dreadfall St. Martin's Press
1988 Shackles St. Martin's Press
1988 Small Fellonies St. Martin's Press
1990 Jackpot Delacorte
1991 Breakdown Delacorte
1992 Quarry Delacorte
1992 Epitaths Delacorte
1993 Demons Delacorte
1995 Hardcase Delacorte
1996 Spadework Crippen & Landru
1996 Sentinels Carroll & Graf
1997 Illusions Carroll & Graf
1998 Boobytrap Carroll & Graf
1999 Sluths Five Star
1999 Duo Five Star
2000 Crazybones Carroll & Graf
2002 Bleeders Carroll & Graf
2003 Spook Carroll & Graf
2003 Scenarios Five Star
2005 Nightcrawlers Forge
2006 Mourners Forge
2007 Savages Forge
2008 Feaver Forge
2009 Schemers Forge
2010 Betrayers Forge
2011 Camouflage Forge
2012 Hellbox Forge
2012 Kinsmen Cemetery Dance
2012 Femme Cemetery Dance
2013 Nemesis Forge

[John Grazide · Rating 4 out of 5]

After "Shackles" this one had a lot to live up to. And it did. With a few call backs to those lost three months and the changes that now are part of Nameless it worked. Nameless now has a few character traits that are new. He has shorter patience and, more importanly, an ability to not to strictly follow the rules. and that serves him in this story.

When asked by his new client, a co-worker of Kerry's, to investigate the suicide of her brother he finds that there is more to it than she thought. After he claimed to win $200K at a casino just weeks before his death the story starts to lead in a direction that is threatening to what he, Nameless, thought was the right thing to do. And some times it isn't. With a cast of shady, and sometimes stupid, characters makes a standard case not too standard.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Nameless Detective is still getting over the trauma of her last case (where he was kidnapped and held prisoner) when he takes on a new case in this 17th entry in the series by Bill Pronzini.

Allyn Burnett is devastated by the suicide by her brother David. The young man had recently won $200,000 at the Reno slot machines, and almost as quickly gambled it all away. She swears he's not a drug user and until the win, never a heavy gambler. He was happy and planning to soon marry his fiance. Instead, Allyn is now seeking a reason for his death.

But the Nameless Detective has a lot of questions, questions that Allyn and the fiance can't answer. More questions come as he delves into the case. And then there are very physical bodily reactions that reflect his past trauma.

The Nameless Detective is an interesting construct. He isn't really unknown, just we're never given his name. While this is only the second book I have read with this character, we have learned quite a lot about him: in Shackles I learned that he was slightly overweight, Italian-American, he has a girlfriend and friends, and he is not a wanderer.

Consider this character with Lee Child's Jack Reacher character. Reacher has a name but no home, no real possessions, no friends and and a very sketchy background other than he is former a military police officer. Yet he has a name.

I think for a writer having a character with no name is very hard to make work and do so successfully. It affects the entire telling of the story from how the writer constructs his sentences, let alone the story line. Bill Pronzini has been able to do it (considering that this is the 17th in a series of 46 books written over a decade). And his stories are not awkward for that important aspect of this story. I was thoroughly engrossed in this tale and enjoyed it amazingly.

[Regan MacArthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was no way anyone could have topped Shackles, the previous book in the series. But a writer has to eat. On its own, this is a fine private eye novel about a man who, thanks to a severe trauma, isn't quite sure who the hell he is anymore. The answer at the story's end was great, so great I thought the idea was begging for further exploration, but Pronzini pretty much dropped it after this.
Good grief, I'm going to end up reading all the Nameless Detective books, aren't I?

[Nat Kidder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nameless wears a number of new hats in this mystery thriller, including underwater athlete and relationship counselor. Another extra dimension, no person being 100% at fault, gives the novel texture that other Nameless tales sometimes lack. Add in Pronzini masterful creation of mood, and you've got a solid addition to a nice series.

[John R Urry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top notch detective story , Nameless always a great read .....

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#17 in the Nameless Detective series. Lover Kerry asks Nameless to talk to a co-worker whose brother has apparently committed suicide. It seems that after winning $200,000 in Lake Tahoe, he gambled it and more away and then swallowed a bottle of pills. Nameless agrees to look into the case. No one is happy with the result of his investigations into the gambling and mob related world of San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and Reno.

Nameless Detective is still recovering from the starvation ordeal he endured in Shackles (1988) when a young woman asks him to investigate the suicide of her brother. It seems the young man had just won $200,000 on a Reno gambling spree and had everything to live for. The trail leads Nameless to the Mob and personal treachery while he confronts his own personal limitations.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

JACKPOT (PI-California-1990) – VG
Pronzini, Bill - 17th in series
Dell, 1990- Paperback
***In his first case after Shackles, "Nameless" is hired to find out why a young man who won $200,000 at a Reno slot machine would commit suicide.
*** With his usual masterly touch, Pronzini has given us an inventive story of overcoming one's past and the effect of greed. The mystery really takes second place in the story and it's a little weak. But the look at "Nameless" still recovering from being held captive and at Eberhardt overcoming past relationships were enough to keep me reading. It's also nice to see a character that deals realistically with his age--he's not young, but he's still tough. This is a short, quick read, but imminently satisfying.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a pretty good detective story. Nameless sets out to discover why someone committed suicide right after earning a $200,000 jackpot and ends up scouring California for clues. There's great good detective work in here, with Nameless finding different info from different people and putting it all together.

The most interesting element of the book was that Nameless realizes that he's really changed after the ordeal of his last book (where he was taken captive for 3 months and left for dead). He's more paranoid and angry, but perhaps more notably, he's willing to cut corners and go outside the law, which he never has before. Pronzini correctly makes that change the crux of the book's plotting, and I found it very interesting to read.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Nameless Detective
SETTING: San Francisco
SERIES: #18 of 40
RATING: 4.0
WHY: Nameless has been hired by one of Kerry's (his significant other) co-workers to look more closely at her brother's suicide. He had just won $200,000 on a slot machine and was about to be married. He spent a bunch of money, but then tried to get it all back for some unknown reason. Nameless uncovers some nasty stuff about the brother. Nameless is a changed man in this book as a result of his experience being held in a cabin for 3 months which occurred in the previous book in the series. It's fascinating to see how his views have changed and to see him struggle with what he is becoming.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nameless investigates a suicide and ends up in a close encounter with the Mob in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Lots of windshield time driving around this area. Another job for a friend that exposes him to risk and a case where the truth shouldn't be told to the client. He collects his fee but it certainly wasn't worth it in terms of time but in terms of justice it might have been.

[Metagion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Great action, and great story; and while it's a 'stand alone' book, you would've had to have read some of his earlier works in the series for the 'inside lines' he has. All in all, though, a quick, fun read.

[Al Stoess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pronzini is good. This book is very descriptive of areas of
Reno,Sparks,Tahoe,Pyramid lake and San Francisco at a time of over 20 years ago. The plot is not that great but it is interesting because of the time period.

I believe I've read it before.

[Bradley]

Nameless

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Mike Kraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

book1

[Colleen Lahey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolf investigates a suicide and ends up being intimidated by the mob. Story was more involved than earlier novels and moved along at good pace.

[Sally Plunkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nameless Detective #17

[Eliana]

Old style detective series with excellent writing, plots and characters throughout

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read - I always like the Nameless Detective

[Harry Addington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. Love the Nameless Detective Series!

[La'Jacinth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Pronzini brings another aspect to the Nameless detective.