"THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE" By Bill Pronzini (A-)

This novel has everything that a suspense tale should have, starting off with an indelibly drawn lead named Richard Fallon. He turns out to be a flawed but appealing loner who becomes a white knight for a reluctant young woman who had hoped to commit suicide in the appropriately named Death Valley. If the other Pronzini books are as good as this novel, then he will become an author that I will continue to read with considerable pleasure. It appears that others share my respect for him, since he is a recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Pronzini's writing style is easy going and colloquial, but make no mistake about it, for his style is very accomplished. Getting the verbiage and the conversations to flow as well as he does is extraordinarily difficult. Others have referred to this as "invisible writing," which is a writing style that appears so natural that the eye breezes over it without stopping to appreciate just how good it really is. Suffice it to say that I can never run across too many good authors in my reading, and Pronzini will be added to my list of favorites. Reading this book has been an unexpected delight.

The protagonist of this novel, Richard Fallon, is a mess of a guy who has decided to junk it all and start out fresh. He has plenty of issues to deal with, the main one being trying to move beyond his intense grief over the loss of his young son. Some three years earlier Timmy fell out of a tree in a freak accident and lingered in a coma for three weeks before passing away. Even though he wasn't there, Fallon still holds himself responsible for his son's death.

Timmy's death, as is so often the case, was the main cause of the breakup of Fallon's marriage with his wife, Geena. Before their divorce she had belittled him by complaining that he "used to be a fighter," especially when he was an MP in the Army, but lately he appears to have given up. His lack of involvement eventually caused her to leave him for another man.

Maybe Geena is right and Fallon really has lost the fight in his life, for his sole remaining passion is to escape the noise and the bustling activity of Encino for the intense quiet of Death Valley, his favorite destination in the entire world. Places with fantastical names like Funeral Mountains, Chloride Cliffs, Hell's Gate, and Scotty's Castle. He feels he belongs there, and nothing makes him happier than to explore this desert environment with the sun glistening off the walls of the canyons before it disappears behind the mountains to the west. He even prefers to sleep out under the stars rather than driving his Jeep to some nearby motel for a soft bed and a shower.

Another reason for the collapse of his marriage was that Geena hated Death Valley and went out of her way to make up excuses for not accompanying Fallon out to that desolate place. So, for years he has visited the area by himself, which was all right with him.

The divorce has recently been finalized, and the proceeds from the sale of their Encino home is enough to keep Fallon in comfort while he takes an extended leave of absence from Unidyne where he had worked as a security guard. Fallon decides that what he really wants to do is to find a job in a small town as close as possible to Death Valley and live there in peace and quiet for the rest of his life. The noise of big cities repulses him, and watching western cities like Las Vegas gobble up square miles of desert land for new housing tracts depresses him even more.

During one of his days spent wandering out in the middle of nowhere in Death Valley, Fallon stumbles across an abandoned Toyota Camry. The doors are unlocked, so he investigates further, finding a purse and a suicide note on the front seat. Surveying the surrounding area with his binoculars, Fallon spots a body in a gulch some quarter of a mile away in rather rugged terrain. He packs bottles of water and some food with him and sets off to rescue the woman.

The woman, Casey Dunbar, turns out not to be grateful for being rescued, as she had hoped to die after failing to find her young son who has been kidnaped by her ex-husband, Court Spicer. Casey had embezzled $2,000 from her employer to pay for information about his whereabouts somewhere in the vicinity of Las Vegas, but the contact person, who, it turned out, had been sent by her ex, beat her up and raped her as well. He later threatened her with murder if she pursued the matter further.

Fallon's heart softens, for he knows what it is like to lose a beloved child. Furthermore, her son, Kevin, is the same age that Timmy would have been if he had lived. Against all his best instincts not to get involved so soon after his divorce, he offers Casey his help in finding her son. Maybe doing this act of kindness will once again make him the fighter that he used to be. 2008, Walker Publishing company, 216 pages.