Endgame

April 24, 2017
The vitality and suspense that marked this long-running series are long gone, as shown by MWA Grand Master Pronzini’s 41st Nameless Detective novel (after 2015’s Vixen). James Cahill, a regional sales director, retains the San Francisco PI to find his agoraphobic wife, Alice, who has disappeared from their Bay Area home. Her sister believes that Cahill murdered Alice, and he’s eager for Nameless to exonerate him. While there’s no obvious motive for foul play, Nameless is intrigued to learn that Alice, a romance novelist, was recently accused of plagiarism. Meanwhile, operative Jake Runyon, Nameless’s partner, looks into the seemingly accidental death of a man found in a locked cabin by his wife, who just wants to identify the woman she suspects her husband was with at the time. The dramatic developments in the characters’ personal lives aren’t likely to move readers not already invested in the series. While Pronzini does include an impossible crime, he has crafted much more imaginative resolutions in previous installments. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.