QUARRY

When Grady Haas, depressed and uncommunicative, moves back in with her dad, he asks Nameless to find out what's wrong. Suspecting nothing more than a soured love affair that she'll soon get over, Nameless is surprised to learn that the lover is a true mystery man--with several aliases: Blackwell, Jack King, David Jones. And that he's gone underground. Who is he really, and how did Grady, a claims adjuster at Intercoastal Insurance, meet him? The answers lie in Savarese Importing, but when Nameless is lured there, the owner has been murdered, the door clangs shut behind him, and the snap, crackle, and pop of an arsonist's handiwork warm things up. Nameless escapes (did you doubt it?) and tracks the arsonist to a gravel quarry for a vigilante justice ending. Pronzini, who since Nameless's kidnapping (Shackles) has been pioneering the noirkvetch novel, whines more than he plots here. Add to this the unappealing wedding-mania that partner Eberhardt is experiencing and the outcome is bathos--plus reader annoyance.