Blue Lonesome

by Bill Pronzini

Shamus Award-winner Bill Pronzini presents a stunning psychological study of one man's obsession and search for truth. Jim Messenger is a CPA who hates his job, loves jazz and can't forget the woman he saw eating at the Harmony Cafe. When the woman commits suicide, Messenger has to learn why, and begins a search that is both a hunt for answers and a rite of passage.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Westerns

207 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

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

[Abbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

1995, Jim Messenger, CPA, San Francisco, and Beulah, NV; amateur sleuth as PI. Mild-mannered number cruncher gets a life, as he tracks down the history of an elusive acquaintance. His search leads him to a small town with loads of secrets, lots of men with muscles and bad tempers, and A Strong Woman.

What could have been almost farcical in another’s hands, works out to be a good, quick read in Pronzini’s. Smoothly descriptive, not too much navel-gazing but enough to understand the protagonist, good pacing and a nicely gruesome murder plot to chew upon, makes this quite enjoyable even to someone who doesn’t usually like westerns. And that’s essentially what this is: a coming-of-age western, a High Noon variant that’s rather more pastel than Technicolor, but entertaining just the same.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in a day, so I have to give it credit for being so compulsively readable. In an atmospheric opening, Jim Messenger observes a woman who called Ms Lonesome, who goes to the same diner in San Francisco every night to get the same dinner. When Ms Lonesome suddenly stops coming, Jim goes looking for her, and find himself caught in a dangerous mystery in the desert. I found the opening of this book very compelling, but the characterisation wasn't strong enough to make the heavy themes believable, and the ending felt very pat to me.

[Harry Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atmopsheric, tense, touching and for the most part strikingly original. In my opinion, this is the gifted & prolific Pronzini's true masterpiece. It's been optioned repeatedly but not yet made into a film. Hope that changes soon.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jim Messenger is a jazz-loving CPA living in San Francisco and is just kind of a middle-aged dude, an introverted loser, living alone, not happy or depressed, just killing time in an uneventful life, when he spies a young woman at a cafe and sees in her a shared loneliness. After noticing she is always at the same place eating the same dinner at the same time every night, "Miss Blue Lonesome" as he dubs her becomes a bit of a fascination for him, even after he works up the courage to introduce himself and she tells him to scram.

When she stops coming to the diner he looks into it and is told that she committed suicide. His amateur investigation, despite his better judgement telling him that none of this woman's life or death are any of his business, leads him to her former life in nearby Beulah, Nevada, where he tries to figure out where this tragic figure came from and what happened in Beulah that drove her away.

And of course one of the characters in Beulah is an unmarried pastor with an adopted teen daughter. If you've read a modern mystery you know that the unmarried preacher who lays judgement down on others always has his own skeletons in his closet. How brave, new, unexpected, and original...

Verdict: Themes of loneliness, abuse, and vulnerability weave about the various characters of a very common and unsurprising mystery.

Jeff's Rating: 1 / 5 (Bad)
movie rating if made into a movie: R

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Messenger is a CPA living a dull existence in San Francisco, when he notices a woman in the cafe that he frequents. The woman appears to be as lonely and alone as Jim is, so he works up the courage to speak with her after he notices that she comes in the same time every night. He works up the courage to speak with her, but she makes it clear she wants nothing to do with him. Then she stops coming into the cafe, and Jim is worried about her. Jim Messenger's life is no longer dull.

[Susan Santangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than expected...

In some ways this is an odd book - odd premiss with odd characters in an unsettling environment. But all the seeming disparate threads come together effectively, and by the end, the oddness is gone and the takeaway is real appreciation for a fascinating and engrossing story.

[Susan Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is the first full length novel of Mr. Pronzini that I have read (having read several shorts stories in anthologies), it will not be the last. The book starts out with Jim Messenger, our protagonist, spying a sad looking woman in the diner where he eats. He names her Ms. Lonesome as he recognizes the abject sadness of someone cut off from others and life. He recognizes it because he sees a kindred spirit.
He attempts to befriend her, is shut down and then becomes slightly creepy in his obsession with her from a distance. His obsession blossoms after she commits suicide so much that he needs to find out what happened to her to make her so "blue lonesome".
In the process, he goes through a transformation that elevates him from an insignificant colourless slug to a strong and passionate hero.
The mystery of Ms. Lonesome involves some pretty shady characters who deal in child abuse and incest, murder, religion and other small town shenanigans. While the final resolution of the mystery was unpredicatable and its unveiling carried me along page to page, the actual final outcome of the book was not. I didn't mind though. I was kind of hoping it would end like that.
Good book filled with damaged but decent characters and a fast paced story. I highly recommend it.

[Julie Matson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!!

I rated it a 5 because it seemed so real. So believable. I could identify with the Messenger. Although he's male and I'm female. I suspect many can say the same. It gave me hope. I will seek out other books by the author.

[Billie Raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't strike me as believable or hold my interest

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Messenger is an accountant in a big city. He doesn't like his job which has no possibility of advancement and he hasn't dated much since his marriage broke up years ago. Basically, he is existing and he figures no one would really notice if he wasn't there tomorrow. He sees one woman one night in a diner he eats at often. She seems even more lonely than him and he attempts to talk to her only to be rebuffed.

When Jim finds out the woman has committed suicide, he feels like he let her down. He resolves to find her nearest relatives and notify them about the money she left behind. Jim takes vacation from his job and heads out into the desert where the woman came from. It's a little town, ruled pretty much by one family which owns almost everything. Jim discovers the woman was a pariah in the town where she was suspected of murder. Jim doesn't believe it and is determined to stay there until he manages to prove her innocence. But can he do that when he has a target on his own back?

Bill Pronzini is known for his mysteries, many set in the Western part of the country. This novel was a New York Times Notable Book and he is considered one of the masters of the genre. His protagonists are usually men who are going through life alone and he gets that subset of humanity perfectly. The mystery is satisfying and there is plenty of action as Jim attempts to discover the truth. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

[John McDougall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good story. Excellent evocation of place and landscape. Even better evocation of what it is to be blue and lonesome. The protagonist starts off as a diffident accountant, living and working in San Francisco. He knows he's in a rut, he knows he's unfulfilled, and then he sees a woman who's even more blue and lonesome than himself. He wants to know why. When she kills herself and he finds a library book in her belongings, he sets off to discover the truth about her. His search takes him to a small town in Nevada, where the inhabitants blame the woman, in the absence of evidence, for the murder of her husband and daughter. He's convinced they're wrong, and starts to ask questions. In the process, he discovers steel within himself. He ends up a different man, in a situation - and in a relationship - which he wouldn't, in his previous life, have thought possible. So it's a novel of hope: never give up on yourself.

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Messenger, a middle-aged CPA living in San Francisco, spends his days at his predictable job and his nights listening to jazz. He's lonely but doesn't do anything to change that until he meets Janet Murphy at a local diner. Every night, she orders the same thing for dinner, eats alone, speaking to no one, and leaves. When she doesn't appear for several ñights, Jim, feeling drawn by a kindred, lonely spirit, goes in search of answers.
That search leads to a desert town, violence, and secrets. But it also leads to the discovery of a different Jim Messenger who wants a different life.
This is a well-crafted novel, rich in the details of California lifestyles, human character, and the interplay of light and dark that swirls at the center of us all.

[Ben Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up because I saw that the library I work at has a bunch of novels by this author, Bill Pronzini. A little reading found the info that he writes detective novels. One major series is the “Nameless Detective” novels. Since my library doesn’t have the first of that series I found a standalone. This novel, Blue Lonesome. If o hadn’t been interrupted and forced to space out my reading times over the course of a week and a half, I would’ve devoured this book in a day. The inner conflict of the protagonist, the external conflicts, the other characters all dealing with their own struggles and trying to hide them from the world. Oh my goodness. Thank you sir! May I have another!

[Sam G.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that when they end, you feel it was too soon. You live there for awhile, in the desert with the main character, and suffer his tribulations. I love how he writes women and how he treats them equally. If I have to say what I didn't make it perfect, I feel it the end was a bit rushed. But that's how I feel it. Without a doubt Mr. Pronzini is a master of the craft. I just want to read more of his works as good as this one. Any recommendation?

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that didn't seem credible to me was that the entire town was hostile toward Messenger. Why? It seems to me that only our murderer would have had motive to want to thwart his investigations. For me, I suspected the Rev and and his daughter early on, because Pronzini portrayed everyone else as hostile EXCEPT for them. That was a dead giveaway.

[Ric Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery in San Francisco and a small desert town in Nevada. Short, compelling mystery with competence across the board: theme, character, story, engagement. Pronzini deserves so much more recognition than he gets.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this book after 20 years and was not disappointed. In fact I think it was better than I had remembered!

Haunting characters, strong plot line, wonderful descriptions of the scenery linked to characters and plot. Good tightly written story.

[Glen J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beulah, NV or bust

A mild mannered CPA goes to extreme lengths to find truth...he finds snakes, small town America, guns, death, violence...but most of all himself.

[Babak Fakhamzadeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining.
The lead character, a few times too often "just knew' things we then have to accept as facts.

[Regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good; quick read; sad

[Paul F Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Pronzini never disappoints.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1996. A top-notch thriller. I occasionally read Pronzini over the years but not regularly. He was a noted crime writer.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story. I enjoyed it, but knew who the killer was from the first time introduced in the book. I still enjoyed the book.

[Regine]

Brooding.

[Jimmy Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pay attention this is a good murder mystery. Who did it? You probably won't guess.

[Phillip Ammar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big Bill Pronzini fan and I've read most of his books. And Blue Lonesome is one of his best.

[Colin P McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short mystery. Only 207 pages, but characters you care about. A story of lonesome people. I’ll be thinking about them for a while.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Jim Messenger can't forget the woman he saw at a cafe. She later commits suicide and he has to learn why.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a kid, there was a local UHF channel that would play movies non-stop on the Saturdays. They would often have a 'theme', such as 'Horror Saturday', 'Audrey Hepburn Saturday', or 'Jack Lemmon Saturday' or 'Mystery Saturday'. The channel would start off with their movie marathons at 10:00 am Saturday morning and finish up on 8:00 pm. All the kids in the neighborhood would look forward to finding out what theme was going to be coming up next weekend, this was years before cable TV, so we were limited in our choices back then.
The first movie would always be an older one, 'B' movie from the 1950's, they would then improve in quality as the day wore on, to the 'B' movie from the 1960's, to vaguely remembered movie from the 1970's, to the more recent movie that didn't perform well at the box office, until they would get to the headliner movie at 8:00 pm, which would usually be a movie that had been first released in theaters four or five years ago. Again, this is before cable.
Anyway, this book reminded me of those old movies that this channel would show in the middle of a Saturday afternoon on a 'Mystery Weekend'. These wouldn't be bad movies at all, maybe they'd star someone like William Bendix instead of an 'A' list star like Kirk Douglas, but they'd be entertaining and be well made. So this is a solid, entertaining book with a twisty ending that I kind of saw coming, but Pronzini did such a good job of setting the scene with his description of this rural Nevada town that it didn't really matter much that the story is a bit far fetched. The setting and characters are worthwhile enough to hold interest with this one.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Blue Lonesome, by Bill Pronzini. B-plus.
Cassette book borrowed from Library for the Blind
Jim Messenger, is a CPA in San Francisco with a very ordinary life. He eats his meals most nights in a particular restaurant. He starts seeing a woman always by herself at another table. She looks so tortured and depressed that he privately starts calling her “blue Lonesome”. He tries to talk to her but she makes it clear to him that she doesn’t want a friend. Then she kills herself. Jim Messenger decides he must track down her family. No one seems to have any knowledge of her, even her real name, and she has left an inheritance which should go to her family. He gets into her room and finds an old library book from “The Bulahe Public Library.” He figures out that it is a town in Nevada, and he goes there to find out about this woman. He finds out a great deal, is put in danger himself, is disliked by the whole town who didn’t like the woman he came to find out about. He finds that the woman is hated by the town because she is thought to have murdered her little girl and her brother-in-law. Ultimately his life is changed forever by his visit to this town. Pronzini is a good storyteller, and it’s a good blessedly short read.