Sometimes with a third novel, I get the impression the author
still hasn't figured out his character yet. I suppose one
could say that about Nameless in his first two outings. In
THE SNATCH and THE VANISHED (neither particularly inspiring
titles in and of themselves), Pronzini tells a couple of
decent tales about an affable guy, an ex-cop and private eye
who got into the business because he loved the pulps. All
through these first two outings, Nameless lives under the
specter of "the thing in my lungs that I didn't want to think
about." You know BLOWBACK is coming. You can feel that
lurking in the background as a subplot waiting for the right
moment, but it goes nowhere. You get a sense that Pronzini is
tinkering first.
Well, if THE SNATCH and THE VANISHED are prototypes, then
UNDERCURRENT is the series' dry run. Nameless still isn't
quite there yet, but in a plot Ross MacDonald would have
applauded (and maybe he did), Nameless travels south of San
Francisco on what's supposed to be a cheating spouse case. He
doesn't want the case, but the rent is due and the bank
account is drained. Nameless follows Walter Paige to Cypress
Bay, a small town near Monterrey, and watches him from a
nearby bungalow at the same motel on the beach where Paige is
staying. He follows Paige around, observes him talking to a
balding man, and follows him back. Pretty dull stuff, which
Pronzini doesn't overwork too much. It occurs to Nameless
that the bungalows are approachable from the beach, where he
can't see any visitiors Paige might receive. He goes out,
only to find Paige opening his door. He's been stabbed and is
dead by the time Nameless reaches him.
Here in this story, bits of Nameless's life already
established weave into the plot. He spots a pulp paperback by
an author he knows of in Paige's room. The chief, a decent
cop who could use the help, lets Nameless follow up on the
lead, both thinking its little more than a dead end. Nameless
is only interested because he now feels he owes his client,
and the writer is a local anyway. That leads him to Paige's
old drinking gang, some bad blood, and a couple of
murders.
It's definitely not Pronzini's finest, but it's a decent
read. And it feels like he's getting a handle on the
character. Nameless's hobby lets him stumble into the
thinnest of clues and spin it into a case. His bad lung holds
him back at some point, and one wonders off and on if he's
going to drop dead during the ordeal.
One thing Pronzini does exceptionally well is deal with
physical consequences. Nameless and the chief are up for over
twenty-four hours, and you feel it in the story. All too
often, writers (including me) will sometimes let their
characters perform feats of superhuman strength after staying
up 36 hours straight. I don't know about you, but when I was
younger, after 30 hours, I was too exhausted to even sleep.
And now, 24 is the max I can go without sleep. So Pronzini
makes his characters exhausted and lets the reader feel
it.
Like I said, this feels like a dry run for BLOWBACK (now
sitting on my shelf awaiting the next round o' PI books to
start.) Not to take away from the first two (which) I liked,
but this feels like the real start of the Nameless
series.
Jim Winter
http://www.jamesrwinter.com
http://jamesrwinter.blogspot.com
winter-newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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