Scattershot

by Bill Pronzini

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312700474
• ISBN13: 9780312700478
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Pivotal Transition Novel in the Nameless Detective Series

In 1971, author Bill Pronzini was only 27 when he wrote The Snatch, building on a shorter and different version of the story that appeared in the May 1969 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine under the same title. With the publication of this book, one of detective fiction's great characters was born with full fledged power and authenticity. If you have not yet read the Nameless Detective novels by Mr. Pronzini, you have a major treat ahead of you. Many of these are now out-of-print, so be sure to check your library for holdings in near-by cities.The Nameless Detective is referred to that way because Mr. Pronzini never supplies a name until Twospot, three books prior in the series, when police lieutenant Frank Hastings tells what his poker playing friends call Nameless, employing a first name. But it's never acknowledged by Nameless that this is his name . . . so it's probably a nickname. That name is not then used again until much later in the series. You can learn about why Nameless has no name in an author's note in Case File, which comes later in the series.Mr. Pronzini presents a world in which people take evil actions to further selfish interests, and many innocents struggle because of that selfishness. The police and private investigators suffer along with the victims, for evil-doing has painful consequences for everyone. Mr. Pronzini's plots are complex, yet he provides plenty of clues to help you identify the evil-doer on your own. Despite the transparency of many of the early plots, he successfully uses plot complications to keep the action interesting and fresh. Beginning with Labyrinth, two books prior in the series, the plots become less simple. Beginning with Hoodwink, the last prior book in the series, locked room mysteries became important.But the reason to read the books is because of the character development for the Nameless Detective. Nameless is a former police officer in San Francisco who collects pulp fiction about tough private detectives. Overcome by the evil he sees as a police officer and drawn to the complex imagery of the strong, silent hero who rights wrongs, Nameless tries to live that role as a private detective. But he has trouble getting clients, and operating as a one-man shop causes him to lead a lonely existence. In his personal life, his career keeps women at a distance. Beginning with Hoodwink, he has a love interest, Kerry Wade, who's the daughter of two ex-pulp authors. Like a medieval knight errant, he sticks to his vows and pursues doing the right thing . . . even when it doesn't pay. At the same time, he's very aware of art, culture and popular trends. And he doesn't like much of what he sees. He's a proud Italian in his 50's, could stand to lose some weight, and is really messy. So there's an element of Don Quixote here, too.The books are also written in a more sophisticated version of the pulp fiction style, employing a better writing style and greater range through language and plot. The

Three "impossible" crimes

Bill Pronzini's nameless detective is face with three locked-room mysteries in this tight novel. Not only that, but the detective is having problems with Kerry, the woman whom he wants to marry and who is not sure she wants to marry him. "Scattershot" is almost a collection of interwoven short stories as the nameless detective seeks to explain how a man apparently disappears from a car under observation, how a woman is killed in a locked cabin but not by the only other person in the cabin, and how a jewel thief pulls off a theft from an empty room under constant observation.The story is rather bleak as the nameless detective, despite his proficiency in solving the three cases, faces license revocation and the loss of his love. The novel is also rather fascinating for the way in which Pronzini interweaves the three apparently unconnected mysteries. As with Pronzini's other work, "Scattershot" is well written. And the three "impossible" crimes are clever and fun. But the problems facing the nameless detective make this book a bleak, if well done, read.