Customer Reviews

Savages: A Nameless Detective Novel (Nameless Detective Mysteries)

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Bill Pronzini's "Savages" is a Nameless Detective novel, but the sixty-two year old Nameless is no longer totally anonymous. As readers discovered previously, the protagonist, like his creator, is named Bill. He is also the first person narrator of the chapters dealing with a thorny situation: a wealthy woman, Celeste Ogden, wants Bill to unearth proof that her cold-hearted brother-in-law, Brandon Mathias, caused her sister's death. The late Mrs. Nancy Mathias died after falling down the stairs in her home; however, there is not a shred of proof that her death was anything but a tragic accident. Furthermore, Brandon has an ironclad alibi; he was out of town when Nancy fell to her death.

The other portion of the book is written in the third person and concerns Jake Runyon, Bill's investigator, a desolate widower who is still mourning for his deceased wife. Colleen Runyon suffered from ovarian cancer, which claimed her after "six months of pain and fading hopes." On a happier note, Bill and Kerry are encouraged by the apparent success of her treatment for breast cancer.

"Savages" refers to cold-blooded criminals--sociopaths who destroy their victims without remorse. Jake Runyon's "routine assignment" involves delivering a subpoena to a witness, but his task turns out to be anything but ordinary. He travels four hours outside of San Francisco to a small farm town called Gray's Landing; he intends to hand over the subpoena and leave soon thereafter. However, Runyon's plans change when he finds the body of a man hanging from a rope in a barn. Jake is then whacked by an unknown assailant and lands in the hospital with a concussion. Long story short, Jake unexpectedly finds himself in the middle of a case of murder and arson. He immediately gets on the wrong side of a nasty and arrogant sheriff, but Jake persists in following his investigation to its inevitably bitter end.

For his part, Bill reluctantly does Celeste Ogden's bidding. With the help of his partner, Tamara, Bill looks through Nancy's diaries and other papers to learn if she and her husband were having marital difficulties, and he interviews her neighbors to see what they know. It turns out that Mrs. Mathias was a deeply troubled and depressed individual whose self-esteem was being steadily eroded by her overbearing and controlling husband. Brandon may have been a nasty and sadistic man but, Bill points out to Celeste, that doesn't automatically make him a murderer.

"Savages" is trademark Pronzini: spare and cleanly written prose, crisp dialogue, a tidy plot and a conclusion that is not completely "happily ever after." The author also provides a sensitive treatment of Bill and Kerry's ordeal dealing with her debilitating cancer treatments. As always, Tamara Corbin stands out; she is a breath of fresh air and her dedication and competence have made her a mainstay of the detective agency. In five years, she has changed from "wiseass militant" to a poised and professional woman with "character, patience, and determination." Alas, she is still trying to get over her cello playing boyfriend, Horace, who unceremoniously dumped her three months ago to take up with a fellow musician. Tamara always has a witty remark to offer even when it's at her own expense: "I'm cool. My love life's ice cold" is a typical Tamara quip. Pronzini is also cool and "Savages" is a fast-moving story that shows just how much life is still left in this long-running series.

I truly enjoyed the double plots in this novel! As always, Bill writes with such detail I feel as if I am right there with the characters sharing their experiences. I think I have all of the Nameless Novels in my collection - so keep them coming!

The nameless detective agency is working on two cases, different facts but---as we see at the end---the same theme to both:people do very bad things, and justice sometimes comes and other times does not."Some loose ends don't get tied off, some problems don't get solved, perfect crimes happen more often than you can imagine, the guilty too often go free, there's more than one reason the statue of justice is blind." Now that's writing and that's the truth. We learn something about the lives of the detectives but only enough to give texture, never too much to provide distraction. This is my first go around with this series. There will be more.

Nameless has wandered far from his origins. He now has a first name, a wife, a young partner, and an employee. In this novel, he almost becomes a secondary character. Of the two cases here, the one which receives the most attention and is the more interesting is the arson and murder case involving the employee, Jake Runyon. Nameless' case takes a clear second place and is not satisfactorily resolved. We get a lot about his wife's health and his partner's lack of a love life. The writing is, as always, excellent, but I was a lot happier with the series when Nameless was still nameless and on his own.

First Sentence: On Friday morning, I took Kerry to the U.C. Med Center for her first follow-up appointment with her radiologist and her oncologist.

Bill (aka Nameless) has been hired by Celeste Ogden, a wealthy, proper San Franciscan, to investigate her sister's death. Although ruled as accidental, Celeste is certain her sister's husband was responsible for her death. Jake Runyon, one of the agency's operatives, has gone to a small town in Northern California to serve a summons. Instead, he walks into a barn and finds a man who has been hung and the suspect is the young man he was there to serve.

We now know "Nameless'" name and the series has evolved over time, but Pronzini still delivers stories that are suspenseful and take the reader down unexpected paths. The "savages" are those people who can hurt or kill without conscience. The offset to that is Bill dealing with his wife's recovery from cancer. The balance is a book that is tight and always interesting. There is nothing predictable about this book except the excellent sense of place, dialogue, character development and Pronzini's always solid writing. I highly recommend "Savages."

This is a page-turner, and a good satisfying story from start to finish. Nameless is hired by a grieving woman to prove her sister was murdered. Runyon has a mundane task turn into a murder and arson case. Kerry is being treated for breast cancer and an old family secret is unearthed. Tamara is becoming a sharp businesswoman leading the agency into the 21st century. Lots of suspense, character development, good detecting, all cases solved, but the resolutions to the cases don't make anyone particularly happy.

My son recently discovered Bill Pronzini and has been devouring the books. Truthfully, I have known of him for a long time but have always read his wife's books (Marcia Muller) rather than his! But my son is loving the books so much, I had to see what all the fuss is about, so I chose the earliest one on his shelf and found that I devoured it in two sittings.

What a great writer Pronzini is! There are two main stories here, one surrounding a woman who is convinced that her brother-in-law murdered her sister, and a second investigation regarding a pyromaniac in the California hills. Nameless himself investigates the first one, while one of his operatives, Jake Runyon, investigates the second. Both stories have good twists in them, and one of them has the interesting characteristic of having a nebulous conclusion. Normally those kinds of endings drive me crazy, but Pronzini makes it all work.

There are a few authors who can make me forget everything else I have going on. Alexander McCall Smith is one of them, but after reading this I can see that Pronzini would be another. I am fortunate in that my son has four more Pronzini books all lined up on his shelf, and I will be borrowing them soon! In short, I recommend the book as a very solid P.I. novel, a bit like a police procedural in that multiple stories are taking place.

Savages is a very well written Nameless novel. When Pronzini has a tense scene with a single charactaer (aka Runyon in the hot barn)...he is excellent. But the three-headed (or multiple) story lines detract from the pace. Tamara is his weakest character, and what I do not like at all about her "computer skills" is it allows Pronzini to cheat with his plots by simply having the great god internet database via Tamara proved him with information on a suspect or -viola--a hidden address or past criminal record. Maybe 'modern' PI work, but it weakens the story. Less Tamara, more Runyon...orlet Runyon go off on his own series. Maybe have a big split up with Bill/Nameless. Now you're talking.

"Savages" is the 31st Nameless Detective novel by Bill Pronzini who is my favorite mystery writer working today. This is the 4th novel in which Nameless (whom we now know is named Bill) narrates in first person where he is the focal character, and chapters involving Tamara, his partner, and Jake Runyon, his operative are told in third person. There are 2 main story lines in "Savages". Jake Runyon goes to northern California to serve a subpoena to Jerry Belsize. When he arrives no one is at home. He finds a Latino man dead hanging from the rafters in the barn at the Belsize farm. Then someone hits him over the head with a blunt object knocking him senseless. Runyon learns that someone is setting fires all over the area. Balsize's girlfriend, Sandra Parnell, claims she doesn't know where Belsize is. Runyon's investigation is thwarted by an over eager cop named Kelso. Is Jerry Belsize alive? Did he murder the Latino man? Is he setting the fires? Runyon finally gets answers to all these questions. Nameless is asked by Celeste Ogden to prove that her brother-in-law killed her sister, Nancy Ring Mathias. Nameless had once investigated Brandon Mathias before he married Nancy but found nothing to incriminate him. Nameless continues to investigate when Tamara finds something interesting in Nancy's diary. Nameless and his wife Kerry are having to deal with her breast cancer. "Savages" is a strong entry in this long running series and is highly recommended.

What's worse than a disgruntled client? A disgruntled client who comes back for more investigation of the same person. That's what Nameless faces when former, unhappy client Celeste Ogden insists she wants to hire Nameless again to find out how her brother-in-law killed Ogden's sister, Nancy Mathias. Mathias died of a fall home alone while her husband was out of town with a good alibi.

In the background, Kerry is recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous lump and is receiving radiation therapy. But it's a relief in one way because at least Nameless knows what's bothering her, a subject of much concern in Mourners where her stand-offish behavior had him worried. Questions about her family background have also been answered.

The agency is doing well. While Nameless has been withdrawn to help Kerry, a new part-time employee, Alex Chavez, has joined the firm. Tamara Corbin, his young partner, and Jake Runyon, the sad-eyed widower, work hard to grow the business.

The book has another major plot which involves Jake delivering a subpoena and taking on more than he anticipated in the process. I like Jake as a character and the stories where he operates on his own are always good ones. Jake is a noir, depressed San Francisco version of Spenser with an equal sense of standing up for the underdogs in life. I wonder if one of the future novels will be all about Jake. I would like that.

Remember that darkness lies in the heart of humans as you read this novel. It's a wonderful throwback to the 1930s noir detective stories, but dressed up on today's issues and language. Very nice!

I found the book to be less compelling than Mourners (which is one of the best books in the series) so don't expect anything quite that good here.