Illusions

    In his 24th and most intriguing appearance, the "Nameless

Detective" finds himself involved in two intricate and emotional investigations.

The first is intensely personal: the unexpected death of his estranged friend

and former partner, Eberhardt. Although there seems to be no question that

Eberhardt committed suicide, "Nameless" becomes obsessed with the reasons behind

the act. "A man doesn't just all of a sudden trade living for dying. Something

prods him across the line between thinking about it and actually doing it. Every

suicide, every homicide has its trigger. What was Eberhardt's?"

    Meanwhile, he is hired by a Santa Fe businessman to find

his ex-wife, who disappeared three years earlier. Locating the woman turns out

to be fairly simple; she is living and working in the northern California wine

country. But just when the case seems finished, it takes on bizarre dimensions-a

fatal shooting that may or may not be accidental, hidden motives, and a web of

lies and deception. "Nameless" is compelled to continue his investigation when

it becomes clear he is partly, if inadvertently, responsible for the victim's

death.

    The keys to both cases lie in illusions-those people

create about themselves and those they perceive in others. Additional

similarities also emerge, leading "Nameless" to a series of startling

revelations and ultimately to the two most difficult decisions of his

career.

    Both a fair-play detective story and a novel of

psychological and moral complexity, Illusions is another triumph for the

sleuth praised by the Chicago Sun-Times as "the thinking person's

detective." It is also further proof that Bill Pronzini is "an exceptionally

skilled writer working at the top of his ability" (Denver Post) and an

innovator in the field of crime fiction.

    

***

    

    From Booklist

    Santa Fe businessman Ira Erskine hires San Francisco

private eye Nameless to find his missing ex-wife, Janice, who may have relocated

to the Bay Area. Erskine wants to offer Janice one last chance to see her only

child, who is dying of leukemia. Nameless accepts the case, partially to get his

mind off the suicide of his ex-partner and ex-best friend, Eberhardt. Within

days after Nameless finds the missing woman, Erskine is found dead in a hotel

room near his ex-wife's new home. While that nightmare is unfolding, Nameless

tries to understand why Eb took his own life. Perhaps it wasn't suicide after

all. As the cases progress, they parallel one another with an eerie similarity

that forces Nameless to reexamine his previously unshakable moral certitude and

self-proclaimed position as a sentinel of black-and-white justice. The Nameless

series is 26 entries and almost 30 years old, and Nameless himself is edging

toward 60. The sheer duration of the series, as well as its increasing depth and

the steady maturation of Nameless-both chronologically and emotionally-represent

a stunning and unique achievement in crime fiction. The series, the character,

and this book are not to be missed. Nameless has become an American

treasure.

    

***

    

    From Kirkus Reviews

    Think the death of the Nameless Detective's

(Sentinels, 1996, etc.) embittered ex-partner Eberhardt will finally

close the book on the bad blood between the two? You don't know brooding

Nameless, who, seeing Eberhardt's pathological moodiness as the mirror of his

own, won't rest till he knows exactly what happened to make Eberhardt shoot

himself in the chest. But soon his sorrowing investigation into Eberhardt's last

assignment, a series of inside-job thefts from a pair of loutish liquor

distributors, gets interrupted by a new assignment of his own: finding the

ex-wife of Santa Fe financial consultant Ira Erskine, armed only with a postcard

to a female friend saying that she's in the Bay Area and desperate to find the

woman who left him and their hometown four years ago before their son dies of

leukemia. So Nameless, continuing his exhaustive tour of northern California,

heads out to the wine country in Alexander Valley and finds Janice Erskine just

in time for his client to get shot as dead as his ex-partner. You can't help

thinking the two cases will have something to do with each other, and so they

do, but not at all in the way you expect. Characteristically overblown but solid

midgrade work from Nameless, even if the old guy (now pushing 60) is awfully

full of illusions for a veteran of 23 earlier cases.

    

***

    

    "The 'Nameless' novels are exciting, mysterious,

beautifully rendered, and filled with humor about the vagaries of life in

California. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that all first-rate writers are

moralists. Pronzini aims to tell us about himself and his times, and thus

'Nameless' is a bit of a secular priest."

    -Ed Gorman

    

    "Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're

living those explosive days of terror."

    -Robert Ludlum

    

    "The 'Nameless Detective' is a classic private-eye

hero."

    -Chicago Sun-Times

    

    "Once in a crocodile's age you come across a writer whose

work you instinctively like. I've found one-Bill Pronzini."

    -Los Angeles Times

    

    "One of the best in the mystery-suspense field is Bill

Pronzini."

    -Washington Post

    

    "An exceptionally skilled writer working at the top of

his ability."

    -Denver Post