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Scattershot, by Bill Pronzini
Oct. 8th, 2008 11:56 pmA few days ago I finished Scattershot, which is the 8th Nameless Detective book by Bill Pronzini.
I continue to like the characterization and the continuing plots. This book was also a kind of nice change of pace, because rather than just having one central mystery, it instead interweaved three shorter mysteries (which I expect where previously short stories).
However, there's something that's really bugged me about both this book and the previous entrant in the series, Hoodwink. Pronzini has become suddenly obsessed with locked room mysteries (and though I say "suddenly", keep in mind that I'm talking about books that he wrote twenty-five years ago).
In fact, the five mysteries in these last two books, which included three murders, one disappearance, and one theft are all locked room mysteries, every single one of them. And the Nameless Detective, who's always been an analytical detective who suddenly sees how all the clues fit together, has suddenly become Sherlock Holmes or something. He sees the locked room mystery, considers it for a few moments, then offers the sudden explanation that no one else figured out.
If this goes on, I'll be done with this series pretty quickly. I hope it was something he got out of his system in these two books.
I continue to like the characterization and the continuing plots. This book was also a kind of nice change of pace, because rather than just having one central mystery, it instead interweaved three shorter mysteries (which I expect where previously short stories).
However, there's something that's really bugged me about both this book and the previous entrant in the series, Hoodwink. Pronzini has become suddenly obsessed with locked room mysteries (and though I say "suddenly", keep in mind that I'm talking about books that he wrote twenty-five years ago).
In fact, the five mysteries in these last two books, which included three murders, one disappearance, and one theft are all locked room mysteries, every single one of them. And the Nameless Detective, who's always been an analytical detective who suddenly sees how all the clues fit together, has suddenly become Sherlock Holmes or something. He sees the locked room mystery, considers it for a few moments, then offers the sudden explanation that no one else figured out.
If this goes on, I'll be done with this series pretty quickly. I hope it was something he got out of his system in these two books.