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Nameless Detective #4
Blowback
Beset by his own fears and uncertainties, a detective answers an old service buddy's call for help and finds himself in an isolated fishing camp where theft, sexual intrigue, and murder add to his troubles
149 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1981
5 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Bill Pronzini
625 books235 followersMystery 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 28, 2019
Don’t know why exactly, but I just can’t seem to quit Bill Pronzini. I’ve read his four earliest “Nameless Detective” books so far, and none have delighted me. On the other hand, none have disappointed me either. Although his prose, even at its best, is unremarkable, and his plots are deliberate and often uninspired, he constructs real honest-to-god mysteries with real solutions and features a hero who is not only likable, but who embodies, in his own earnest, pulp-fiction-loving way, all the qualities a detective hero should have.
In this adventure, Nameless has been hired by his old army buddy Harry Burroughs to hang out at his fishing camp near Eden Lake north of San Francisco, just to keep his eye on things. Harry thinks trouble is about ready to break out: he has five people at his camp, three of whom are single men, plus a a sexy wife and her jealous, hard-drinking husband. It is a volatile mix, and Harry wants Nameless’ help close by, if he needs.
And then somebody dies, somebody that nobody would have suspected. And things get interesting—and complicated—very fast.
The plot is slow getting going, but the conclusion is very satisfying—including a nice little surprise at the end.
March 27, 2023
From 1977
This one is really good, fun but deep. The murders come to a lengthy and satisfying conclusion, but we are still left in suspense with the main character's medical situation.
This one is really good, fun but deep. The murders come to a lengthy and satisfying conclusion, but we are still left in suspense with the main character's medical situation.
November 29, 2022
The 4th book in the series is the one where the nameless detective finally quits cigarettes. He has been waiting to hear about the lesions on his lungs and whether they are cancerous and gives up the smokes cold turkey.
At first he takes a pragmatic approach to the possibility that the lesion on his lung could be a big problem:
Just as he is given the uncertain news of the lesion he is contacted by an old friend who runs a fishing camp on the lake in the Sierra Nevada. He asks Nameless to come up to help him out with a potential situation.
After giving it some careful thought he agrees to the trip because, contrary to his earlier acceptance of the possibility that he might be really sick, the truth of his feelings soon become clear.
The result is a trip to the lake and the cabins that are owned by a friend of his. The cabins are fully booked but the owner is concerned that the tenants are not getting along and needs someone to smooth the waters.
The source of the tensions on the lake appears to come from a husband and wife couple. The wife is beautiful and a definite temptation to some of the other residents. The husband is jealous and when he drinks is prone to violence. Everything is set up to explode and when the detective arrives on the scene the tension in the air is palpable.
As if on cue, the idyllic location is rocked with a violent death but it comes from a direction other than the expected one. It involves an incongruous scenario connected oddly enough to Oriental Rug thieves. While this, at first, appears to be a bit of a digression from the main storyline it nicely ties in with the people staying at the fishing camp.
This is a well-constructed story that brings together a mismatched range of characters all of whom have the capability for mischief. When the murders inevitably start taking place the story takes on a classic whodunit feel with the knowledge that one of the people we’ve been introduced to is a murderer. Pronzini controls the plot nicely and paces us evenly through to the end.
This is the book that I really felt I began to understand the detective as a real character. He is alone and lonely, clearly afraid for his life with the impending results of the tests on his lungs and the inner monologues share tremendous insight and emotion.
It is for this reason that Blowback is an important episode in the Nameless story and it feels as though his character is being set up for the series entries that are to follow.
At first he takes a pragmatic approach to the possibility that the lesion on his lung could be a big problem:
“There was no sense in worrying myself, just as the doctor advised. It would not help matters, it would not change matters. The lesion on my lung was malignant or it was not malignant. I had cancer or I did not have cancer. Simple.”
Just as he is given the uncertain news of the lesion he is contacted by an old friend who runs a fishing camp on the lake in the Sierra Nevada. He asks Nameless to come up to help him out with a potential situation.
After giving it some careful thought he agrees to the trip because, contrary to his earlier acceptance of the possibility that he might be really sick, the truth of his feelings soon become clear.
“Besides, I was in a sorry mental state right now and I needed an activity, a place and a direction to concentrate my sensibilities. I had always been motivated by my work, and it was a tried and true antidote for self-pity and depression. So was fishing for lake bass and reliving some good moments of the past with an old friend.”
The result is a trip to the lake and the cabins that are owned by a friend of his. The cabins are fully booked but the owner is concerned that the tenants are not getting along and needs someone to smooth the waters.
The source of the tensions on the lake appears to come from a husband and wife couple. The wife is beautiful and a definite temptation to some of the other residents. The husband is jealous and when he drinks is prone to violence. Everything is set up to explode and when the detective arrives on the scene the tension in the air is palpable.
As if on cue, the idyllic location is rocked with a violent death but it comes from a direction other than the expected one. It involves an incongruous scenario connected oddly enough to Oriental Rug thieves. While this, at first, appears to be a bit of a digression from the main storyline it nicely ties in with the people staying at the fishing camp.
This is a well-constructed story that brings together a mismatched range of characters all of whom have the capability for mischief. When the murders inevitably start taking place the story takes on a classic whodunit feel with the knowledge that one of the people we’ve been introduced to is a murderer. Pronzini controls the plot nicely and paces us evenly through to the end.
This is the book that I really felt I began to understand the detective as a real character. He is alone and lonely, clearly afraid for his life with the impending results of the tests on his lungs and the inner monologues share tremendous insight and emotion.
It is for this reason that Blowback is an important episode in the Nameless story and it feels as though his character is being set up for the series entries that are to follow.
June 10, 2021
Best Nameless Detective story so far! All of the introspection and twisty turns, with a new level of some fearful mortality denial. This series is pulp-tastic.
August 10, 2016
After three books of Nameless coughing up his lungs he finally decides enough is enough and gets it checked out. The doc finds a lesion on his lungs and tells him further testing would reveal whether it was malignant or benign. This sets up the situation of Nameless worrying himself to death in anticipation of the results. In the meantime a friend calls him asking for a favour. Desperate to push his anxiety to the back of his mind our lonely detective agrees. The setting: a lakeside fishing camp. The set-up: a beutiful wife and a jealous neurotic husband. A camp owner worried that there might be trouble ahead. Mainly though this one is about Nameless taking a long look inside himself as he faces off against his own mortality. Pronzini ramps up the tension with a heat-wave and some seemingly unconnected criminal activity resulting in murder. As with the last book the actual mysteries plotted out aren't the greatest but it's well written as usual about a fictional character who is forever matching himself up to the fictional characters of his beloved pulps and facing the fears that dog us all as we get older.
July 31, 2024
The Nameless Detective is turning 50 soon, awaiting a possible lung cancer diagnosis, is brooding alone among his collection of pulp magazines in his apartment, depressed, and then gets a call from an old friend asking him to join him at his relaxing fishing lake camp in the woods. A VIP guest at this friend's cabin camp is accusing all the other men there of making time with his wife so he wants the detective to find out if she's cheating and with whom. They witness an unrelated murder and now we've really got a mystery on our hands.
While the early dalliance mystery gets us started, and then the murder mystery takes center stage, the Detective's attempts to solve these mysteries are waylaid by spoilery events and multiple twists and turns. These mysteries also unfold against that backdrop of the detective's dreaded mid-life examination of his own value and mortality, a middle-aged bachelor living what might be his last days cut short. It is interesting that this time spent at the hot and humid mountain lake away from San Francisco actually adds to the stress and paranoia felt by our hero rather than lightening it; literally everything in the detective's world is turned upside down, even a supposedly-relaxing lake and cabin, exhausting and depressing.
Verdict: A smart detective fiction tale with stakes and nuance, good pacing of the mystery itself with segments of reflection alternating with suspense and excitement, well-defined suspects, a relatable aging hero, and a saddening-then-uplifting-and-back read.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
While the early dalliance mystery gets us started, and then the murder mystery takes center stage, the Detective's attempts to solve these mysteries are waylaid by spoilery events and multiple twists and turns. These mysteries also unfold against that backdrop of the detective's dreaded mid-life examination of his own value and mortality, a middle-aged bachelor living what might be his last days cut short. It is interesting that this time spent at the hot and humid mountain lake away from San Francisco actually adds to the stress and paranoia felt by our hero rather than lightening it; literally everything in the detective's world is turned upside down, even a supposedly-relaxing lake and cabin, exhausting and depressing.
Verdict: A smart detective fiction tale with stakes and nuance, good pacing of the mystery itself with segments of reflection alternating with suspense and excitement, well-defined suspects, a relatable aging hero, and a saddening-then-uplifting-and-back read.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
March 27, 2019
3 1\2 stars on Blowback. I liked him getting out of San Francisco for a break if that's what one would call it.
May 1, 2020
This case didn't tickle my fancy, quite like the first three. In this it sounded like Mr. Pronzini, suffered what Mr. Nameless was going through at almost turning 50. Still nice detective work and will for sure continue on with the series. 3.5 Stars
February 2, 2025
The appealing thing about the Nameless Detective is that he’s not strong or particularly brave. He’s paunchy and graying. But he’s smart and diligent. He cooperates with the police who are all reasonable professionals.
That’s about all that is positive about this installment of the series.
The book is 148 pages and big hunks are taken up with Nameless describing his depression, with his (understandable) fear about possible lung cancer, descriptions of the phlegm he coughs up, and, finally his long explanation of the solution to the crime. So there is not a lot of pages left to develop characters, motives, plot or believable actions.
The premise that gets the story started is weak, with Nameless’s friend concerned about trouble at his hunting camp. There are several men and one woman. The woman is of course a manipulating witch who causes all the trouble because men can’t control themselves.
Then there’s a stolen rug, a murder, a peacock feather, a missing man, a missing sketch - just a mishmash of nonsense. Nameless has to make a bunch of assumptions in his wrap up with the police to make it tie together.
The final identification he makes is totally predictable.
Lastly, the book ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. Given that it’s a 148 pages I can’t say that’s unfair based on the amount of time invested. But it is a cheap trick.
That’s about all that is positive about this installment of the series.
The book is 148 pages and big hunks are taken up with Nameless describing his depression, with his (understandable) fear about possible lung cancer, descriptions of the phlegm he coughs up, and, finally his long explanation of the solution to the crime. So there is not a lot of pages left to develop characters, motives, plot or believable actions.
The premise that gets the story started is weak, with Nameless’s friend concerned about trouble at his hunting camp. There are several men and one woman. The woman is of course a manipulating witch who causes all the trouble because men can’t control themselves.
Then there’s a stolen rug, a murder, a peacock feather, a missing man, a missing sketch - just a mishmash of nonsense. Nameless has to make a bunch of assumptions in his wrap up with the police to make it tie together.
The final identification he makes is totally predictable.
Lastly, the book ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. Given that it’s a 148 pages I can’t say that’s unfair based on the amount of time invested. But it is a cheap trick.
March 31, 2011
short, nasty, depressing
September 12, 2022
( Format : Audiobook )
"A pulp private eye."
The Nameless detective is pondering mortality - his own. A recent visit to the doctor had revealed that uncomfortable cough to be caused by a lesion on his lung and he was now awaiting the test result, arriving on his 50th birthday, to reveal.if it was cancerous. But a call for help from an old army buddy had him reluctantly leave the city for a few days to stay at Harry's fishing and hunting camp prior to the diagnosis. The author's easy, hoping style is as delicious as ever, but personally I much prefer Nameless in the city over old gold rush territory.The
Read by Doug Hamilton, effortlessly becoming Nameless as he relates the story in the first person, the narration is strong, well modulated and showing clear understanding of the characters and content, with individual voicing for each protagonist. His female voices are especially convincing. A good overall performance.
Blowback is a fast read, rugged country story, understanding but intriguing with the executive's internal ponderings on his life and future death. I enjoyed it, but prefer when he investigates at home in the Big City. Nice brief musical interlude between chapters.
"A pulp private eye."
The Nameless detective is pondering mortality - his own. A recent visit to the doctor had revealed that uncomfortable cough to be caused by a lesion on his lung and he was now awaiting the test result, arriving on his 50th birthday, to reveal.if it was cancerous. But a call for help from an old army buddy had him reluctantly leave the city for a few days to stay at Harry's fishing and hunting camp prior to the diagnosis. The author's easy, hoping style is as delicious as ever, but personally I much prefer Nameless in the city over old gold rush territory.The
Read by Doug Hamilton, effortlessly becoming Nameless as he relates the story in the first person, the narration is strong, well modulated and showing clear understanding of the characters and content, with individual voicing for each protagonist. His female voices are especially convincing. A good overall performance.
Blowback is a fast read, rugged country story, understanding but intriguing with the executive's internal ponderings on his life and future death. I enjoyed it, but prefer when he investigates at home in the Big City. Nice brief musical interlude between chapters.
June 20, 2017
Blowback (The Nameless Detective Book 4) by Bill Pronzini – Nameless discovers that he has what is believed to be a nonmalignant lesion on his lung, and further testing is necessary to confirm the diagnosis. Of course, he is terrified about that and has curtailed his smoking to almost none. Sitting around doing nothing is only escalating the situation. However, luckily a friend hires him to chaperon a small group of people who are staying at his isolated fishing camp. He believes someone needs to make sure that there is no inappropriate, or even criminal, activity at the camp. Nameless discovers that a beautiful, but flirtatious, woman and her jealous, alcoholic husband has created a tinderbox of potential violence, which quickly explodes and puts Nameless in a harrowing situation. It’s a very interesting story that subjects Nameless to life-threatening situations that are fired by more than just jealousy. The reader is treated to an extremely exciting conclusion when Nameless must kill or be killed.
July 11, 2023
Blowback by Bill Pronzini is #4 in the Nameless Detective series. It was OK. I was put off somewhat by nameless's constant reference to the pending results of his lung biopsy due Tuesday wherein he would learn whether the mass is benign or he has lung cancer. Unreasonable of me, of course, but there it is.
The story itself was OK, nameless gets a call from an old friend to come up to his cabins in the mountains to help him out witha difficult situation. It's difficult all right, and not unexpectedly it takes a turn for the worse.
This is a short fast paced read and is by far the earliest in the series I've read. The later ones were better but I don't know if this was a one off or the other early ones are like it. I'll try another soon.
The story itself was OK, nameless gets a call from an old friend to come up to his cabins in the mountains to help him out witha difficult situation. It's difficult all right, and not unexpectedly it takes a turn for the worse.
This is a short fast paced read and is by far the earliest in the series I've read. The later ones were better but I don't know if this was a one off or the other early ones are like it. I'll try another soon.
February 4, 2017
I can't get enough of this guy! Both Pronzini and Nameless. This one finds Nameless off to help one of his oldest friends. This friend owns a nice little lakeside campsite and is having some problems with the guests. When Nameless arrives he gets a look at the some of the characters and then the bodies start to pile up. All while this is going on he is dealing with some personal health issues and they are as riveting as the story itself. Wow! Bring on the next one!
September 25, 2017
I really love Pronzini....but this one was a disappointment...it had a personal side and that is fine...I want that..but it dwelt way too much on it...and solving the crime...the detective didn't have real clues ...it was all deduced...and theory...so there was no way to solve this one myself...still was glad to have read it but glad his others have not been this way...not near as enjoyable...
April 16, 2021
The book is slow paced, a little too much at the begininng, but still a steady read. The mystery is nicely blended with Nameless's concerns over his own mortality. There are a couple of well done red herrings and the final twist is well done and plausible.
October 13, 2023
Not bad, pretty short detective novel. The characters and plot are not super hard to follow, but the ending is not anything spectacular. Definitely worth reading, not revisiting.
February 3, 2010
First Sentence: Sunday Morning Coming Down… That’s the title of a sad popular song by Kris Kristofferson, about a man with no wife and no children and nowhere to go and not much to look forward to on a quiet Sunday morning.
“The Nameless Detective” is about to turn 50, and is waiting to learn whether the lesion on his lung is cancer. He receives a call from a old Army buddy who now owns a fishing camp in Northern California Gold country. He is concerned his current group of guests, consisting of five men and one very attractive woman, might lead to violence. Bill doesn’t expect becoming involved in another case when he witness a van go off a road only to find the driver, transporting a very valuable Daghastan carpet, has been murdered before the crash and the carpet missing.
With Pronzini, you get much more than your standard PI novel.
Partly because of his age, “Nameless” is at the introspective point in life where he thinks about his pulp fiction collection and acknowledges they no longer hold the same pleasure they once did, contemplates the soul, his past relationships, his ethics and morality. This adds a depth and richness to the character I enjoyed. I also appreciated the nod Pronzini gave to his friend Colin Wilcox character, Eberhardt.
The book has a very solid sense of place. Pronzini not only provides a visual picture of California’s Gold Country, but makes a very insightful comment on what has happened to that area today.
A solid plot with a surprise is always the trademark of a Pronzini novel. It never feels contrived and he always provides all the clues, if you pay close attention. I was glad he included a brief history of Daghastan carpets as it better integrated that aspect of the story. There is a pulp fiction, noir feel to the book but contains no graphic language and the violence is after the fact.
In spite of this being only the fourth book in the series, Pronzini’s mastery is apparent. There are a few mystery authors who should be considered required reading of the genre. Pronzini is definitely one.
BLOWBACK (Priv Inv-“Nameless”-No. Calif/Bay Area-Cont) - VG
Pronzini, Bill – 4th in series
Random House, 1977, US Hardcover
“The Nameless Detective” is about to turn 50, and is waiting to learn whether the lesion on his lung is cancer. He receives a call from a old Army buddy who now owns a fishing camp in Northern California Gold country. He is concerned his current group of guests, consisting of five men and one very attractive woman, might lead to violence. Bill doesn’t expect becoming involved in another case when he witness a van go off a road only to find the driver, transporting a very valuable Daghastan carpet, has been murdered before the crash and the carpet missing.
With Pronzini, you get much more than your standard PI novel.
Partly because of his age, “Nameless” is at the introspective point in life where he thinks about his pulp fiction collection and acknowledges they no longer hold the same pleasure they once did, contemplates the soul, his past relationships, his ethics and morality. This adds a depth and richness to the character I enjoyed. I also appreciated the nod Pronzini gave to his friend Colin Wilcox character, Eberhardt.
The book has a very solid sense of place. Pronzini not only provides a visual picture of California’s Gold Country, but makes a very insightful comment on what has happened to that area today.
A solid plot with a surprise is always the trademark of a Pronzini novel. It never feels contrived and he always provides all the clues, if you pay close attention. I was glad he included a brief history of Daghastan carpets as it better integrated that aspect of the story. There is a pulp fiction, noir feel to the book but contains no graphic language and the violence is after the fact.
In spite of this being only the fourth book in the series, Pronzini’s mastery is apparent. There are a few mystery authors who should be considered required reading of the genre. Pronzini is definitely one.
BLOWBACK (Priv Inv-“Nameless”-No. Calif/Bay Area-Cont) - VG
Pronzini, Bill – 4th in series
Random House, 1977, US Hardcover
July 13, 2014
RATING: 3.5
He's just gotten some bad news, and its impact has made him immobile and fearful. He's always known that the racking cough was not just something that was going to go away, that the ache in his chest was indicative of something more serious. And now he's found out that he has a lesion on his lung which could be malignant. He's set to sit and wait and do nothing else until he gets the results, but is swayed into action by a call from an old buddy of his from the service, Harry Burroughs.
Harry has an isolated fishing camp in Northern California. Currently, he has several people in residence. Recent events have convinced him that the place is a powderkeg waiting to erupt into violence. Therefore, the call to Nameless. What Nameless finds on his arrival is a simmering situation, mostly caused by the presence of a very erotic woman by the name of Angela who is there with her extremely jealous husband, Ray, who is even more combustible because he's a heavy drinker. Angela is a woman who plays sweet but gets deep underneath a man's skin and is nowhere near as innocent as she would have folks believe.
And then the murders start. The first doesn't seem to have anything to do with the situation when a rug dealer is killed in his van. But then the inhabitants of the camp become targets, including Nameless. He faces more than the usual share of danger as he is entombed in a cave. The book has a little bit of everything—sexual intrigue, theft, murder, violence—all leavened by Nameless searching for the truth in a high tension environment.
Blowback is not one of the better entries in this series. As always, the writing is top notch; but the book itself is inconsequential, almost like an extended short story. It's not difficult for the reader to determine who the bad guy is. The setting is almost like a locked room with a limited number of suspects, some of whom can be immediately discounted. I wouldn't make an effort to seek this book out unless you want to do so in order to read the complete series.
He's just gotten some bad news, and its impact has made him immobile and fearful. He's always known that the racking cough was not just something that was going to go away, that the ache in his chest was indicative of something more serious. And now he's found out that he has a lesion on his lung which could be malignant. He's set to sit and wait and do nothing else until he gets the results, but is swayed into action by a call from an old buddy of his from the service, Harry Burroughs.
Harry has an isolated fishing camp in Northern California. Currently, he has several people in residence. Recent events have convinced him that the place is a powderkeg waiting to erupt into violence. Therefore, the call to Nameless. What Nameless finds on his arrival is a simmering situation, mostly caused by the presence of a very erotic woman by the name of Angela who is there with her extremely jealous husband, Ray, who is even more combustible because he's a heavy drinker. Angela is a woman who plays sweet but gets deep underneath a man's skin and is nowhere near as innocent as she would have folks believe.
And then the murders start. The first doesn't seem to have anything to do with the situation when a rug dealer is killed in his van. But then the inhabitants of the camp become targets, including Nameless. He faces more than the usual share of danger as he is entombed in a cave. The book has a little bit of everything—sexual intrigue, theft, murder, violence—all leavened by Nameless searching for the truth in a high tension environment.
Blowback is not one of the better entries in this series. As always, the writing is top notch; but the book itself is inconsequential, almost like an extended short story. It's not difficult for the reader to determine who the bad guy is. The setting is almost like a locked room with a limited number of suspects, some of whom can be immediately discounted. I wouldn't make an effort to seek this book out unless you want to do so in order to read the complete series.
September 12, 2013
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
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
September 12, 2014
One of the things I like about detective novels is that they're often quite short. Thus, I can almost always read a single novel within a weekend. I think I picked this up on Saturday night and finished it up Sunday night. Given the intricate relationships and mysteries implicit in the genre, it's nice to have it all together, thus giving you an opportunity to figure things out.
And that's definitely one of the things that I like about the Nameless Detective. Though detective novels always seem to have more stuff come out of left field than I'd like, Pronzini seems to play more fair than most. In this case, even though I hadn't identified the killer (and indeed, think that the protagonist didn't have enough info to identify the killer) I did successfully realize most of the other stuff that was going on.
There's one other aspect that's interesting about the Nameless Detective: he's not a larger-than-life pulp hero. In fact, the author makes a constant point about this, since the protagonist collects pulp stories and thus can compare himself to those heroes. Unlike them, he tends to work with the police (a true rarity in detective novels) and generally stay on the right side of things. It's a nice change of pace.
And that's definitely one of the things that I like about the Nameless Detective. Though detective novels always seem to have more stuff come out of left field than I'd like, Pronzini seems to play more fair than most. In this case, even though I hadn't identified the killer (and indeed, think that the protagonist didn't have enough info to identify the killer) I did successfully realize most of the other stuff that was going on.
There's one other aspect that's interesting about the Nameless Detective: he's not a larger-than-life pulp hero. In fact, the author makes a constant point about this, since the protagonist collects pulp stories and thus can compare himself to those heroes. Unlike them, he tends to work with the police (a true rarity in detective novels) and generally stay on the right side of things. It's a nice change of pace.
June 25, 2013
I love the concept of this series, which is 25 years old now: the main character, a P.I., is never named. Sometimes, it's rather jarring, but by and large Pronzini makes it unobtrusive and you don't really notice the missing name.
This is one of the earlier stories, which finds Nameless facing his own mortality while helping out an old Army buddy. Said buddy has asked him to come up to his lakeside cabins and try to sort out an explosive situation that has developed around the wife of one of his lodgers. The husband is insanely jealous of any attention paid to her, and there is a lot of attention since she is gorgeous and seemingly unaware of her effect on men.
In the midst of this, the two friends are witness to a van going off a cliff with its owner dead in the front seat. And then one of the other lodgers turns up missing.
If you don't like hard-boiled detectives, you'll strongly dislike this book, but it's an interesting snapshot of the last 70s culture if nothing else. I'll keep reading the series.
This is one of the earlier stories, which finds Nameless facing his own mortality while helping out an old Army buddy. Said buddy has asked him to come up to his lakeside cabins and try to sort out an explosive situation that has developed around the wife of one of his lodgers. The husband is insanely jealous of any attention paid to her, and there is a lot of attention since she is gorgeous and seemingly unaware of her effect on men.
In the midst of this, the two friends are witness to a van going off a cliff with its owner dead in the front seat. And then one of the other lodgers turns up missing.
If you don't like hard-boiled detectives, you'll strongly dislike this book, but it's an interesting snapshot of the last 70s culture if nothing else. I'll keep reading the series.
August 4, 2012
Nameless Detective #4 has Nameless about to celebrate his 50th birthday while awaiting lab results to find out if the lesion on his lung is malignant.
He answers a war buddy's call for help to defuse a tense situation at the buddy's fishing camp. A femme fatale has the attention of all the men in the camp which sparks the outrage of her hard-drinking husband.
The murder of a truck driver and the theft of a valuable rug add a sub-plot (and a short treatise on oriental rugs) which will seamlessly meld with the main story.
Nameless' concerns and feelings of mortality permeate this interesting novel.
He answers a war buddy's call for help to defuse a tense situation at the buddy's fishing camp. A femme fatale has the attention of all the men in the camp which sparks the outrage of her hard-drinking husband.
The murder of a truck driver and the theft of a valuable rug add a sub-plot (and a short treatise on oriental rugs) which will seamlessly meld with the main story.
Nameless' concerns and feelings of mortality permeate this interesting novel.
January 2, 2015
Nameless' old friend runs a hunting & fishing camp where the only female guest is there with her jealous husband, and several unattached males. The bass aren't the only ones being fished, and the bears may not be the only ones shot at.
Nameless is asked to use his detective skills to discover what infidelity is really going on and perhaps keep the tension to a slow boil. Things get hairy when a total stranger is found dead on the lake--is it unrelated or a portent of things to come?
Combines the atmosphere that Pronzini's so skillful at with crisp narrative. Mystery fans will like it and Nameless fans will love it.
Nameless is asked to use his detective skills to discover what infidelity is really going on and perhaps keep the tension to a slow boil. Things get hairy when a total stranger is found dead on the lake--is it unrelated or a portent of things to come?
Combines the atmosphere that Pronzini's so skillful at with crisp narrative. Mystery fans will like it and Nameless fans will love it.
June 20, 2020
No Name is called to the Mother Lode to watch some suspicious people. He's waiting for medical tests so he decides this will distract him from sittng round San Francisco.
There is one female and several males. One married to her and the rest tempted to bed her. A van goes of the cliff of the lake, with a rug thief inside and one of the group of cabin campers goes missing and the husband dies in a gun blow back explosion.
No Name hates to admit that the woman and his friend appear to be together and involved in the death of the husband.
Another quick and interesting read.
There is one female and several males. One married to her and the rest tempted to bed her. A van goes of the cliff of the lake, with a rug thief inside and one of the group of cabin campers goes missing and the husband dies in a gun blow back explosion.
No Name hates to admit that the woman and his friend appear to be together and involved in the death of the husband.
Another quick and interesting read.
June 4, 2010
First one of Bill Pronzini's "Nameless" detective books I've read. (I wanted to read them in order, but haven't found the first two.)I'm impressed so far. It's nice to read about a detective who is human. As opposed to the type who get beaten to a pulp but bounces right back into action.
I wonder, is the "Nameless" thing a tribute to Dashiell Hammett's "Continental Op" stories? We never learn the Op's name in those.
I wonder, is the "Nameless" thing a tribute to Dashiell Hammett's "Continental Op" stories? We never learn the Op's name in those.
April 12, 2016
Short and thrilling beneath some grim undertones.
Pretty damn all right!
It's not great mystery or shocker when it all unravels, but it leaves lots of room for speculation while racing to the conclusion.
Pretty damn all right!
It's not great mystery or shocker when it all unravels, but it leaves lots of room for speculation while racing to the conclusion.
June 30, 2012
Good detective novel.
November 3, 2012
Fourth of the Nameless Detective Series
Read
April 6, 2014Old style detective series with excellent writing, plots and characters throughout
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