A simple case of blackmail gets lethally complicated when "Nameless" exposes a nasty scam that involves junior accounts executive Jay Cohalan, his unhappy wife, and a mistress with a serious drug problem. It's the kind of case Nameless likes, because bleeders—the blackmailers, extortionists, small-time grifters, and other opportunists who prey on the weak and gullible—sit near the top of his most-worthless-human-beings list. But soon Nameless finds his client shot dead in the middle of a four-poster bed, and only by a hair's breadth escapes a similar fate. During a relentless hunt for his unknown assailant in San Francisco's shadowy underworld, he encounters bleeders of every ilk, and, in a climax as powerful as it is unexpected, finally confronts his own demons.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
March 1, 2006 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780792741862
- File size: 188516 KB
- Duration: 06:32:44
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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What may be the final outing in the 30-year career of Pronzini's "Nameless" Detective begins with an easy-to-spot blackmailer's scam, one that almost gets Nameless murdered and forces him to examine his past, present, and future. The novel ends with the implication of his retirement. Gregory Gorton handles the novel's characters well: the villains (many), the good guys (few), and Nameless's wife and newly adopted daughter. Gorton's narration is particularly effective in the descriptions of the mean streets Nameless travels and the motley humans who inhabit them, right down to onion breath and missing teeth. All told, a well-delivered adventure, by writer and reader. If this is Nameless's exit, we shall miss him. T.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from November 19, 2001
At age 60, Pronzini's Nameless Detective has been through the wars more than two dozen times in such singular mysteries as Crazybone
and Boobytrap. Now the San Francisco–based PI has acquired a daughter, a home and a name—"Daddy"—that may portend retirement if he can solve a case that spirals from simplicity to murderous complexity in a heartbeat. Hired to safeguard a blackmailed husband's final payoff, Nameless is almost killed and his client is murdered. In addition, the money, the husband, the husband's mistress and a vicious killer all go missing. Nameless has patrolled the mean streets of San Francisco for a long time, and nobody knows them better or performs the traditional PI role better. But age is telling, and his near-death experience has Nameless re-evaluating his relationship with lover Kerry and orphaned Emily. However, before he can resolve his future, Nameless must descend once more into the San Francisco underworld of drug dealers, grifters, users and other "bleeders." Pronzini's storytelling is straightforward, honest and effective. The settings, from the city's slums to its coastal highways, are vividly drawn, and the tawdry denizens Nameless must confront to recover the ransom and find a killer are utterly convincing. Nameless, as suggested here, may be on the verge of a well-earned retirement, but he's in top form as he often has been in Pronzini's award-winning series. (Jan. 1)FYI:A recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private-Eye Writers Association of America, Pronzini has won three Shamus Awards.
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