"MOURNERS" by Bill Pronzini (A-)
It took me longer than
it should have to stumble across crime writer Bill Pronzini. The fault is all mine, since he has authored more than 60 novels
and has won numerous mystery writing awards along the way. My problem is that browsing through bookstores and libraries usually
results in selecting the most recent publications since they are always the ones which are prominently displayed.
Given this situation, I
first read (and reviewed), "The Other Side of Silence," Pronzini's very fine 2008 novel starring Richard Fallon, a former
security guard and army MP, who drops out of the high octane lifestyle of California to explore Death Valley. That desolate
locale is his version of heaven until he stumbles across a distraught mother who has given up on life after being unable to
rescue her young son from a kidnaping plot.
While the Richard Fallon character may turn out to be a
one book deal, Bill Pronzini had already achieved literary fame by being the author of numerous popular novels starring what
has come to be known as the "Nameless Detective." Since the Fallon book was such a nice read, I decided to search for one
of Pronzini's earlier Nameless detective books. "Mourners," his 2006 effort, seemed to be as good a place to start as any
with a headline above the title noting that this is "A Nameless Detective Novel." Pronzini's literary quirk is that he never
refers to his detective by name, and all of the chapters are written in the first person. Not that figuring out his real name
is all that hard to deduce from the information provided.
Happily, "Mourners" is as fine a read as "The Other Side
of Silence," but the writing style and the organization of the two books are so different that I found it hard to believe
that this book was written by the same author. Needless to say, I would have written the same thing had I come at this from
the side of his Nameless detective novels. This is certainly not a complaint, for this novel is also excellent. Actually,
more power to Pronzini for being so versatile in his literary capabilities.
Pronzini develops his story
primarily from the viewpoints of the employees at the detective agency, all of whom figure importantly in the development
of the case. Nameless sports his own chapters with an incognito thumbprint, but the other chapters are titled by the lead
character involved with their story told in the first person as they see it. More to the author's credit is the fact that
each section is believably skewed by the personality of its narrator.
Nameless's right hand man is Jake Runyon, a former Seattle
cop who is nursing a world of hurt. Jake had a nasty divorce from his first wife, who vented her spleen in such a way as to
turn their only son against him. Jake moved to San Francisco to be near his son, but so far the two have not reconciled. More
anguish followed with a very successful second marriage tragically cut short when his wife died from from ovarian cancer.
Jake loves working for
Nameless, as it allows him to leave his personal problems behind. He has high standards, keen instincts, and he works by the
book. He also has a strong sense of justice and empathy for the victims. Here Jake finds the sister of a murder victim who
is also suffering from bereavement, and they strike each other as kindred spirits. That she bears superficial similarities
to his late wife makes her all the more appealing.
The third employee is Tamara, the queen of the office. Tamara
has the ability to ferret out useful information both from her computer skills as well as her highly developed talent to schmooze
information out of every bureaucrat she collars on the phone. Recently, however, Tamara has been in a funk due to the failure
of her long term relationship. Adding insult to injury, she suffers the indignity of being dumped by long distance telephone
and then coming to the realization that he was cheating on her when he was around.
The characters all have
personal lives even while working on the case, and their personal quirks are delved into in considerable detail. Nameless
sorts out the office dynamics as well as trying to be a loving dad and a husband at home with a daughter suddenly going through
puberty and a formerly attentive wife who has become uncommunicative over personal issues.
Their new case involves
tailing a husband who is "acting strangely," whatever that means. Lynn Scott Troxell hires Nameless to follow her husband,
James Troxell, because lately he has been distant and preoccupied. Lynn is sure that the problem isn't another woman since
James has always been affectionate, but Nameless isn't so sure.
He takes up the case, only to find bizarre behavior when
he observes that James Troxell is taking time off from his executive position with Hessen and Collier in order to attend the
funerals of apparently complete strangers around San Francisco. The funerals that he attends and watches silently from a distance
are invariably for young women who have been murder victims.
Tamara cannot find any linkage between the murder victims
in her records searches until Troxell is spotted at the grave site of Erin Dumont, who was raped and murdered two months before
in Golden Gate Park, a case which is still unsolved. The coincidence is in the timing, as this happened about the same time
that Troxell started acting strangely. Maybe there is a connection, so all three members of the team spring into concerted
action in order to find the connecting threads. Jake, Tamara, and Nameless will each have their own story to tell. The title
is apt, for everyone in this book is a mourner. 2006, Tom Doherty Associates, 285 pages.
