Publisher Description
"The bitterest of woes is to remember old happy days." At least that's what old man Pietro Lombardi thinks. He's got la miseria and can't even play a peaceful round of Sunday bocce with his friends at Aquatic Park. That is, until he sees the "Nameless Detective" at an opposite bench—another romantic taking in what's left of the Italian-American essence of the neighborhood. A shared burden being a lesser load, Pietro enlists his paesan's help with a troubling family matter. It seems his granddaughter, Gianna, is being harassed and needs some looking after. For old time's sake, Nameless agrees to check things out.
Nameless quickly finds that Gianna is in hotter water than Pietro can imagine. The smarmy landlord who was hassling her is now black-and-blue and apologetic, her roommate is a little more than friendly in a very cheap sort of way, and Gianna is nowhere to be found. Even though his instincts tell him to leave well enough alone, Nameless searches for Pietro's "beauty of beauties" in the muck of a lascivious underworld full of loudmouthed liars, sleazy pornographers, and cold-blooded killers. After uncovering the horrific truth about Gianna, Nameless is far out of his depth. His investigative tracks have been spotted and leave him vulnerable to the wrath of Gianna's tormentors. Not only is Nameless a witness to the seedy behavior of the group, he has been reeled into a trap. In the end it's all Nameless can do to ensure that his epitaph will not be among those that are popping up around him.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With unerring plotting and an unabashedly retro narrative style, Pronzini ( Quarry ) moves his San Francisco-based ``Nameless Detective'' ever closer to the mortality the book's title suggests. Now nearing 60, work-driven, solitary and often scared, Nameless is watching a game of North Beach bocce when one of the oldsters asks him to help a granddaughter who has been accused of stealing money. Gianna Fornessi proves tough to locate. Her apartment is fancier than an unemployed single girl's should be, and she is mysteriously ``away''; her roommate is at first indifferent, then is found dead. The girls' profession becomes clear as a paper-and-phone chase leads Nameless to a series of pimps, porn publishers and customers. In his own life, meanwhile, Nameless grows closer to his woman friend Kerry's elderly mother and more distant from his longtime partner, Eberhardt, who is still steamed over an argument and is thinking about striking out on his own. Pronzini has made the dogged, blinkered existence of a detective his exclusive domain in this relentlessly grim yet thoroughly absorbing series.
