Sat 10 Dec 2011
Allen J. Hubin
BILL PRONZINI – Jackpot. Delacorte, hardcover, 1990. Dell, paperback, 1991.
Bill Pronzini will find it tough indeed to top his scintillating 1988 “Nameless” novel, Shackles, and he doesn’t with the next, Jackpot, but by any other standard this is a very tasty morsel.
Nameless is still, months after his harrowing experiences in Shackles, undergoing anxiety attacks and learning new things — not all gratifying — about himself.
He needs to keep busy at work so his mind is distracted, and he takes on a nothing case as a favor to his friend Kerry. It seems that an otherwise very ordinary chap named David Burnett won $200,000 in a Lake Tahoe casino, then lost it all and more somehow, and committed suicide.
It’s very plainly suicide, but David’s sister doesn’t believe it, and Nameless, more as a comfort than anything else, agrees to check a few things. The more he checks, the more odor of fish turns up, and in due course it’s likely to be the stink of death, probably his.
Very smooth and observant narrative.
Vol. 12, No. 4, Fall 1990.
December 16th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
I’ve read most of Bill Pronzini’s NAMELESS mystery novels. I’m rationing the last few. Pronzini’s books are always well written and clever.
December 16th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Bill has also managed to keep the series fresh and lively over the years, mostly by letting the characters age and change as everyday (and not so everyday) events happen to them, but also by trying different story-telling techniques, points of view and so on. I think he enjoys the challenges he sets himself on every book he writes.
I don’t think you need to start rationing the books out too severely, though I know what you mean. The series has gone through several publishers now, with a good home at the moment at Tor/Forge Books.