2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Functional private eye yarn, November 6, 2002
One reason I like the Nameless Detective series-of which this is an example-so much ,is the way the character ages and develops as the series goes on ,and the humanisation of the character resulting from this.Nameless is no superman,and he is feeling every one of his 58 years in this solid ,if somewhat slow developing novel.
He and his partner Eberhardt are employed by a lawyer to discover evidence that will help get a man named Thomas Lujack cleared of a vehicular homicide charge.The main witness against Lujack is an embittered blue collar blowhard named Pendarves,and things look bad for Lujack when Pendarves claims that Lujack tried to run him down too.Lujack soon turns up dead and when Pendarves goes missing it looks like he is the culprit.As Nameless carries on digging into the case it becomes tangled up with a scam involving illegal immigration and the exploitation of cheap labour ,a scam from which the late Mr Lujack and his surviving brother reaped rich rewards.
The story did not begin to move beyond the functional till around midway when it gathered pace and intensity building towards a powerful,hostage taking climax.
The title is significant and the meaning made explicit late in the book-all the main characters are in the throes of a life crises ,pushing them towards the margins of and in some cases over the edge .Nameless is lucky -he is able to recover from a traumatic period in his life ,and Kerry his girl friend works through a domestic crisis.Others are not so fortunate and their lives veer away from the comfort zone and into a kind of emotional abyss,from which drink and a blind lashing out are the only escapes
As in other tales in the series there is a vein of compassion for the marginalised and expoloited which adds weight and substance to its sturdy PI plot. Most people in the book remind us of Thorteau's dictum that the mass of mankind have lives of quiet desperation.San Francisco and its less touristy parts in particular are well realised.
Not the best starting point for the series and among its weaker entries but devotees of the author and/or genre will probably not complain unduly
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nameless Goes Undercover, November 19, 2003
Breakdown is unique in the Nameless Detective series in that it is the only book in which Nameless and his partner Eberhardt play major roles in the same case. This is the second book following Shackles, in which Nameless's character changes. As in Jackpot, Nameless is impatient and willing to bend the law to pursue justice.
Reading the over 25 novels in the Nameless Detective series is like taking a tour of California. In each book, a new geography and new set of Californians are explored and exposed. Inevitably, the Hispanic population had to come into one of the stories, and this is the book for them.
Nameless and Eberhardt have been hired to help Thomas Lujack clear his name in the motor vehicle homicide of his business partner, Frank Hanauer. Nameless has gone undercover, and has been spending his evenings in a tavern trying to make a personal connection with one of the key witnesses, Nick Pendarves. As the book opens, Pendarves comes into the tavern complaining that Lujack had just tried to run him down. While Pendarves muses on the danger, he mentions a name, Rivas, that gives Nameless a new investigative lead. Nameless calls Lujack to discuss the situation, but there's no answer at his home. Did Lujack try to run down Pendarves?
The detectives soon learn that Lujack's company has been employing illegal immigrants, and wants to keep that a secret. They defend the practice as being necessary to stay in business.
Looking for Pendarves when he doesn't show at the tavern, Nameless stumbles onto an unexpected death at Pendarves's house. Then, Nameless and Eberhardt are fired. But suspecting that there's a serious problem, they continue to follow the clues . . . while the Lujack family tries to stop them.
At the same time, Nameless's girl friend, Kerry Wade, is dealing with the loss of her father, with whom Nameless had a lousy relationship. Kerry's mother decides that she no longer likes Nameless, and the relationship is at its rockiest since Hoodwink.
The mystery in this book isn't quite mysterious enough for my taste. Also, the beginning moves a little slowly. Overall, though, it is a solid offering in one of the best detective series of all time.
As I finished this book, I thought about how hard it is to keep a secret. In personal behavior, we should all assume that whatever we do may be on the front page some day.
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