BONES

by Bill Pronzini ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 1985

Another so-so San Francisco outing for Pronzini's ""Nameless Detective,"" once again involved in a case with connections to bygone pulp-thriller fiction (a Pronzini specialty). Why did pulp-king Harmon Crane commit suicide way back in 1929? That's what Crane's emotionally unstable son--a mere babe at the time of his father's death--wants to know. So the Nameless goes poking into Crane's past, talking to his widow (a mental case), his nasty old lawyer, and pulp-veteran Russell Dancer (a boozy has-been). But the case only gets interesting about halfway through--when the Nameless discovers a female skeleton (of '49 vintage) in an earthquake fissure near Crane's old mountain retreat. . .and when two brand-new killings suggest a complex (but not very plausible) chain of past/present events involving murder, accident, cover-up, and locked-room tricks. Padded out with some heavy-handed comedy (the crude doings of pal Eberhardt's girlfriend Wanda) and some narrative digressions by the Nameless: a lesser entry in an uneven series.

Pub Date: June 25, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION