BILL PRONZINI - CASEFILE (1983)

Synopsis/blurb….

It was over fifteen years ago when the big, sort-of-sloppy, brew-loving P.I. appeared on the scene, dazzling reader with keen solutions to seemingly unsolvable crimes. And just as his disheveled demeanour gave no hint of the brilliant mind that lay behind it, his lack of a moniker said nothing about his rising popularity with mystery readers everywhere.

Nameless opens up his files on some of his most fascinating cases. Collected here are ten stories and two novelettes, giving Nameless fans a page-turning potpourri of his toughest and most dangerous adventures. CASEFILE holds his greatest hits – a 12-pack to be popped open and enjoyed on an off-duty afternoon. So sit back and spend some time with one of America’s favorite (and most likeable) P.I.’s, who has caught more criminals – and imaginations – than any other gumshoe in recent American fiction.

Not sure about a 12 pack, as my copy of this only had 10 stories in total, but I’m not going to quibble. An interesting collection and for the most part really enjoyable.

We encountered……. an armed robber, a kidnap, a hit and run and blackmail on skid row, a book thief, an anonymous phone caller threatening murder, a reformed alcoholic who's a fall-guy for some reckless cops, a fishing trip that saves a life - all good so far, and least enjoyable of all, a convoluted locked room murder mystery which I can’t help but feel was written to show us all how clever the author really is. The method of murder was a bit of a stretch, but nothing compared to the dying man’s opaque clues which no-one other than Nameless could decipher. Boo and hiss – I hated this particular story.

One story apart - a great collection, with a bit of diversity in our sleuthing.

Great sense of place – San Francisco again…..It was a beautiful city when you saw it like this – all the buildings shining gold in the dying sunlight, the bridges and the islands and the dazzling water and the East Bay and Marin hills surrounding it. It was only when you got down into its bowels, when you came in contact with the people – the few bad ones spoiling it for the rest – that it became something else. A jungle. A breeding ground for evil, a place of tragedy and unhappiness.

I loved that city. I had been born there and I had spent half a century there and you couldn’t have paid me enough to make me move anywhere else. But sometimes, my job being what it was, it made me angry and sad. Sometimes, in a lot of ways, it made me afraid.

4 from 5

Bought copy several years ago.

Back on the trail later this month with Quicksilver, the 11^th full length Nameless novel.