Schemers

December 22, 2008
In MWA Grand Master Pronzini's 34th Nameless Detective novel (after 2008's Fever
), his series sleuth takes on a challenging locked-room puzzle. When Gregory Pollexfen, a wealthy bibliophile, reports the theft of eight rare first edition mysteries from his collection, which he keeps in a secured room in his San Francisco home, Nameless investigates on behalf of the insurance company involved. The subsequent shooting death of the victim's ne'er-do-well brother-in-law in the locked library complicates the original case, though Pollexfen's wife, who was also in the sealed room and whose prints are on the weapon, is the obvious suspect. Meanwhile, a subplot in which Nameless's colleague, Jake Runyon, attempts to track down a stalker targeting a Los Angeles couple is notable only for Runyon's slow emergence from the emotional shell he developed after his wife's death. Since the two story lines aren't obviously compatible, readers may wonder why Pronzini decided to combine them.

It was a good call to cast narrator Nick Sullivan for the Nameless Detective Agency series. In this one, Nameless solves a true parlor mystery (a man is killed in the locked library of a mystery book collector) while partner Jake Runyon tracks a psychotic, obsessive-compulsive stalker. Tamara Corbin (the third partner in the agency) stars in a subplot about her love life. As the Nameless crew prowls Northern California, things never get too gritty, or too dark, and the most dangerous things that intrude are a few bouts of melancholy. Sullivan delivers just enough dry wit for the Nameless sections (told in the first person) and a trustworthy noir tone for the Runyon segments (in the third person). R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine