Shackles

Nameless Detective #16

by Bill Pronzini

Kidnapped by a ruthless, amoral ex-con seeking revenge, the Nameless Detective is left to die, chained to the wall of a remote mountain cabin, and only his strength of will and determination stand between him and a lingering death

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Detective

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

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 seventeenth entry in the Nameless Detective series may be the best so far. And it is a significant departure from the rest of the series.

Although the plot is familiar, it is a significant departure from the rest of the series, derived more from movie thrillers than detective adventures. One night, leaving his girlfriend Kerry’s apartment, Nameless is waylaid by a man in a ski mask with a gun. Bent on revenge, he chloroforms our hero and drives him to a cabin in the woods. Once there, he shackles Nameless to the wall, leaves him with enough food for thirteen weeks, saying he will be back for the body four months or so. Nameless, in course of his ordeal, decides he has three important task ahead of him: 1) devise a means of escape, 2) identify his assailant (why thirteen weeks?), and 3) track him down and kill him.

As regular readers of the series know, Nameless is an ethical, compassionate, and easygoing detective. But his ordeal in the woods and the requirements of survival have changed him by the time of his escape. He feels no qualm about his murderous revenge. He breaks into houses, scavengers; soon after he is carrying a gun.

The story of Shackles is a tale of revenge, but it is also a story of a traumatized man who eventually reclaims his full humanity again. During his imprisonment Nameless keeps a journal, and we learn something of his father and mother, something about his motivations. We also witness a suspenseful journey on snow shoes, meet a few interesting characters, and enjoy one roaring good fight. Eventually we are led to a satisfying conclusion which reveals a poignant fact about Nameless' assailant too.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable mystery.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I have a burial spot all picked out for you. And you mustn't worry - I'll dig your grave deep so the animals won't disturb you.

My fourth Pronzini read - and another one in his famous series about a private detective whose name is never mentioned - is a conventional revenge story in the tradition of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. Instead of Château d'If in southern France, Central California provides interesting locations for the plot: the region roughly east of Stockton, Ca, and west of the Sierra Nevada range.

Shackles (1988) is the 17th installment in the series: it follows Deadfall that I have just reviewed here. The beginning of the novel evokes a happy and carefree atmosphere: the detective and Kerry, his love interest, meet Eberhardt's (he is the detective's partner) new girlfriend. The mood is so cheerful that it is obvious something bad is just about to happen.

It does. The detective is abducted, chloroformed, and driven to a mountain cabin in a remote area, where he is shackled with an iron chain to a wall. He is left to die there, but not quickly. So deep is the abductor's grudge that he has provided a lot of food for the detective: the idea is to extend his suffering and prolong the process of dying. Our hero even muses about sawing his leg off to escape but the lack of suitable tools makes the selfie surgery idea difficult to implement.

As stereotypical as the imprisonment part of the story is it made me think about it as a metaphor of human life: one is chained to a particular place, certain foods, radio stations, etc. for the remainder of one's given lifespan, with death the only thing to look forward to.

I am not going to spoil the story by divulging whether there is the second part of the story, the part that portrays the vengeance. Lame joke, sorry. However, while in a facetious mood I will quote a short passage that made me smile:

"Retirement is hell, so to hell with retirement."

That's the spirit! Only people in wrong jobs may want to retire! Anyway, reading the novel - other than the mentions of many Central California locations that I find familiar - has not been a particularly memorable experience.

Two and a quarter stars.

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

SHACKLES (Private Investigator) – EX
Bill Pronzini – 17th in “Nameless” series
St. Martin’s Press, 1988 – Hardcover
Imagine leaving your girlfriend’s apartment a few days before Christmas, being forced into a car, handcuffed, chloroformed and awake shackled with a leg iron attached to a wall in an isolated mountain cabin with 13 week’s provisions and told you are being left to die there. This is the situation in which Pronzini’s ‘Nameless’ finds himself.
*** There are not many books I reread but this is absolutely one of them. The plot is tight, dialogue crisp and sense of place makes you reach for a blanket. Written in first person, you experience the thoughts and emotions of ‘Nameless.’ Although out of print and somewhat difficult to find—I recommend used.addall.com—it is worth every effort. It is truly haunting and well deserving of the ranking of Excellent.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Nameless Detective
SETTING: California
SERIES: #17 of 40
RATING: 4.35
WHY: Nameless is abducted by a masked man who takes him to a remote location and shackles his leg to a chain that cannot be removed. The villain leaves food enough for 13 weeks and some minimal supplies. Nameless knows the man is seeking revenge but cannot figure out who it could be. The book is divided into sections; the first deals with his life in the cabin and is chilling in its impact on Nameless. Ultimately, he finds an ingenious way to become free; his subsequent journey into civilization is quite suspenseful. Compelling and engrossing until the dramatic tension eases as he seeks vengeance. An excellent entry in the series.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great re-read for me. I had been on a Nameless Detective binge but wanted to re-connect with the first book that I read. It was good years ago and I had kept my paperback and found it even better the second time around. It is a tough book to review.

Nameless is abducted and taken to an isolated location and shackled. He is left with 13 weeks of food and will eventually die if he cannot figure out how to break free of this shackles. He knows he is hated by the person who kidnapped him but doesn't know why. The ending of this book did not let me down. So glad I kept that paperback.

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

OMG this was so good. I don't want to spoil, but this book is unlike ANY of the others in the series, with repercussions I suspect will haunt Nameless for the rest of his storied life.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the next Nameless Detective book in the series, and it's pretty unique book. The first third is about Nameless being held in captivity by a faceless villain. Afterward, he escapes and hunts said villain down using some nice detective work.

Much of this book is really a psychological thriller centering on our protagonist, and it's very well presented. However the detective work that appears in the middle of the story really works too. It's all around a strong book, and I'm very happy to see Pronzini continue to move away from those closed-door mysteries that he was (briefly?) obsessed with.

There was also some very nice use of northern California background in this one, away from Nameless' typical stomping grounds, but still an interesting and iconic part of the state.

I'm more enthusiastic to read more Nameless books after this one.

[Yann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read most of the Nameless Detective books over the years. But Shackles is my favourite. It is quite distinctive in tone and considerably darker. The Detective is kidnapped in San Francisco and is chained in an isolated cabin in the mountains with enough food for thirteen weeks.
The book relates, in the first person, the captivity period, followed by the escape and finally the investigation to track the kidnapper. Each part is quite different but the intensity never drops until the end.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers enter the mind of the nameless detective in this entry in Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective series of mysteries.

In this one, Nameless is feeling pretty good: he has a good business partner and a loving girlfriend and is considering his future retirement. That is until he goes out to his car in the early morning and is kidnapped by a slim male with a ski mask. He is taken into the mountains, shackled to the side of a rustic cabin and left with roughly 13 weeks of food, apparently no way to get away, and alone.

Almost day by day, readers of this book are there with him, reading how it feels, what he does to stay sane and wonder, as he does, who would do this to him and why.

Makes for a very different and interesting mystery. As no one knows what happened to him, no one has a clue as to where to search for him. With limited ability to move, Nameless only knows he is somewhere in the mountains but not how far or how remote it is from civilization. And of course, he still ponders the who and the why.

[John Grazide · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Not like the other Nameless stories at all. This one finds him thinking about semi-retirement duringa great evening with Kerry and Eb. But as he is heading home, right outside Kerry's house, he is kidnapped, drugged and brought to an isolated cabin. Where he is chained and left with just enough food to last three months. During this time he is forced to reflect on many things. From his current life all the way to when he was a kid. It's agonizingly paced, but not boring. When he gets free he has only one goal, and that is to find the one responsible for his imprisionment and make things right. If he can.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more like three and a half stars, but since I just visited the Sacramento area where it is largely set, it was more vivid to me than it otherwise would have been. Nameless is kidnapped and left to starve or commit suicide, whichever comes first, chained up in a deserted mountain cabin in the winter. I thought the book would stand or fall depending on how ingenious he was in escaping and hunting down his abductor. The escape is not particularly ingenious at all, and the hunt is pretty much par for the course in private detective novels. There are vivid characters along the way, and the solution is very satisfying, almost exactly what you would wish.

[James S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good entry in this series, readable, interesting. Nameless wakes up chained to a wall with rations that will only last him a few weeks. Basically Saw meets Raymond Chandler. Lots of retro 80s touches: phone booths, foldable maps, AIDS. Interesting variant of the PI novel.

[Regan MacArthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the best private eye novels I have ever read. A triumph. A nearly perfect mash-up of Red Harvest and Deliverance. I don't know what else I can say about it. The damn thing left me breathless.

[John Raspanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 15th of the series. This one is the best so far. A relentless read. I couldn't stop.

[Charlie Eckhaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outrageously suspenseful, the impact greater for being so atypical (especially for this series) a PI novel. Not the one I'd recommend to turn someone on to the character, although it is true to him.

[D. Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some really great writing!

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve popped in and out of this series over the years and mostly enjoyed it. Some of the books include characters who were so unrefined and vulgar that I almost gave up on it at times. So, it’s been a while since I dipped into this series. I’m thrilled I did.

It’s early December as the book opens, and Nameless has finished hanging out with his girlfriend. He’s about to get into his car when he feels something hard against his back. It turns out that someone is abducting him. Nameless cannot see his abductor. The guy speaks to him, but in a breathless whispery voice. The kidnapper drives Nameless to an isolated cabin in the Sierras and chains him to the wall. The guy leaves Nameless with enough food to last 13 weeks. The plan is for him to slowly starve to death. But why? As he languishes in his chained state, Nameless reviews his past cases trying to understand who would want him slowly dead.

Books like this that include kidnapping and shackling plotlines creep me out. I guess being captive is a heart-pounding horror for me. The idea of someone holding me hostage or deliberately slowly starving me to death horrifies me.

Since the Nameless series goes beyond book 16, you already know from before the first page that Nameless doesn’t starve to death. But you’ll be there with him in that cabin with his static-filled AM radio and his rickety space heater that, if it fails, could mean he freezes to death.

I can’t even imagine the sheer horror of spending Christmas day isolated, alone, snowed in, shackled to a wall, knowing that your meager food supplies are becoming increasingly meager by the day. It’s equally hard to imagine the elation that comes with liberation and freedom.

This is a short book, but it kept me interested and wide awake long into the night. Even if you’ve not read the series before, you can enter here without much difficulty.

[Karl · Rating 5 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

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Pronzini, Shackles (Dell, 1988)

Bill Pronzini has been writing "nameless detective" mysteries for nigh on three decades, and I never picked one up until a got a bag of books from my mystery-loving mother a few months ago containing Shackles. Comitting the heresy of reading a series novel out of order, I decided to crack the cover and see what all the fuss was about, assuming there is any fuss surrounding a non-A-list mystery writer. There isn't, really, but in this case there probably should be.

Shackles has "nameless" abducted by an old enemy-- we're not sure who until the closing pages-- and spirited off to a remote cabin somewhere in the dead of winter, chained to the wall, and left with thirteen weeks' worth of food, some reading material, a dying space heater and radio, and a cheery warning that suicide is probably preferable to starving to death. Needless to say, this ain't your typical hardboied detective offering. Pronzini carries it off nicely, adapting readily to the slower pace that such a book is bound to have (no pun intended) and keeping the reader's interest nicely. The pages fly on this short novel (roughly 250 pages) as nameless spends his time alternately bemoaning his present state of affairs, trying to figure out who it was that stuck him in this mess, and accepting that the world has probably left him for dead. A fun little book, and a decided change of pace for mystery fans. Worth picking up. ***

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#16 in the Nameless Detective series. Finalist 1989 Anthony Award for Best Mystery. A unique situation for "Nameless", he has been abducted from the street in front of Kerry's apartment, taken to an isolated mountain cabin, and left to die. Normally introspective, this forced solitude takes his introspection to a new level. The finale doesn't match the buildup, but the originality of the setting makes this series entry a must read.

Nameless Detective series - "Nameless" is kidnapped by an unknown assailant, driven to a remote mountain cabin, shackled to a wall, and left to starve. While imprisoned, Nameless ponders his past cases, desperately trying to recall who would have reason enough to inflict such a lingering death. Taking a break from pondering, he manages to escape. Fired by vengeance and curiosity, he parlays an isolated clue into the would-be killer's identity, but it still makes no sense. Only a confrontation with his nemesis reveals the man's motives and the reasons behind his unusual method.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this one contains the transformational experience of Nameless' life. Nameless is kidnapped by somebody who ties him up in a cabin in the Sierras and leaves him enough food for a limited time. What awaits him is a slow death from starvation. All the time Nameless is clueless as to who the perpetrator is. Unbelievably once set free the first thing Nameless does not do is call his soulmate and tell her that he's safe. His only goal is set out to find the guy who did this to him and kill him. The hunt is the best part of the book. Having read all the books after this one, you can say this bad experience led to lots of good for Nameless, proof that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He's a better man despite the trauma we would call PTSD these days.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read and enjoyed very much. Breaks the patterns of the normal flow. The main character is a private detective, we never learn his name and he lives and works in San Francisco. Pronzini has been writing this series for about 30 years. This book was written in 1988. I have read a couple and like them.

In this story our hero is kidnapped, and left chained to the wall in a mountain cabin. The villain tells our guy he has left him 13 weeks worth of food and will return long after that to bury him.

He does escape the cabin in a subtle but believable way. Then he starts to track down this man.

[Alane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evidently this was not the right book to begin my relationship with the Nameless Detective. You try finding an earlier one at the library.

I grabbed Zigzag but thought I should read an earlier one first to get acquainted with him, and this was what I found. Whoa. Existential kidnap nightmare in a cold as hell cabin.

I do not like snow. I get cabin fever if I oversleep. And canned food is a nightmare of its own. So this was just a crazy book for me to read.

I think this book is now a movie called "The Revenant". Just kidding, but also not.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Bill Pronzini's harrowing novel of entrapment, suffering and revenge a detective is abducted by a masked man who will tell him only that the object is revenge; Nameless awakens to find himself chained to a table in a remote cabin, provided thirteen weeks food and water within arms reach and with only his resources and courage to rely upon as he seeks to escape from this death sentence.

This is one of my favorite mystery stories...I would highly recommend this one.

[Cherie Waggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shackles is my favorite Bill Pronzini "Nameless" book. I could feel all the emotions that Nameless felt, suffered with him through the entire book. And when I wrote Bill Pronzini to let him know how much I enjoyed the book, he was sweet enough to tell me that it was one of the hardest books he ever wrote for those same reasons. It's wonderfully suspenseful and you're never sure just what Nameless will do until the very end. I highly recommend this book.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nameless is abducted by an unknown assailant and held,shackled, in a mountain cabin with enough food for 13 weeks. Left to die. Since this is #16 of 38 books, we know he escapes but how he does it and who is behind the abduction make this a riveting story. Even though it can stand alone as a good story, this book is why, in my opinion, it pays to read a series in sequence.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Nameless Detective title has gotten a lot of mentions, including in the later Nameless Detective titles. SHACKLES is definitely one of the high points in the series. Great stuff. I plan on doing a longer review for Patti Abbott's Forgotten Friday blog.

[Nrool · Rating 3 out of 5]

I frusted with the ending.....
and how he managed to escape....
I wonder if the writer was actually pseudo-experieced the same scenes like the nameless before he wrote this book as he described the details of someone who was left alone,in a cold secluded mountain and chained...

[Metagion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really good, as it appeals to those who love the psychological aspect of a story as well as the "nitty gritty" of the details. The build-up is a little slow, but, like a plane, once you get off the ground you enjoy the ride! Great read, and quick enough for a lazy afternoon :)

[Barbara Deakins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a great story about someone taken and hidden away. I really like the "Nameless Detective" series. The detective is a very likeable down to earth person who gets caught up in other people's problems.