Scattershot by Bill Pronzini

Scattershot by Bill Pronzini
Series: Nameless Detective #8
Published by PaperJacks on May 1987 (first published 1982)
Source: Purchased
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 172
Format: Paperback
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Business is booming for Nameless; he's started in on three new cases in one week. But every single one of them turns bad some way. In the first, a husband disappears from a car that Nameless has been following. In the second, a woman is mysteriously murdered while Nameless stands outside her bungalow. In the third, a valuable ring disappears from a locked room that Nameless has been guarding. The papers are full of bad publicity. After being at the scene of two homicides, everyone is suspicious of him. He is at risk of losing his PI license. At the same time, he recently proposed to the woman of his dreams and she is becoming more distant from him every day.

Nameless is having a really bad week. Three cases, all of which should be quick, easy money, go awry, landing him in the hot seat. And, to top it off, thing are not going great with his girlfriend.

I don’t really have much to say about the book, even though I definitely enjoyed it. It’s a quick story and I love how Nameless manages to solve the crimes. All three are basically locked room mysteries and getting to the answers take both seeing the clues and having that flash of insight. I also appreciated that even though we do have three mysteries, they’re actually unrelated. Too often in mysteries, everything conveniently ties together; here they don’t, which feels  more realistic to me.

I could have done without the moping about the girlfriend. I’m pretty sure that his pressuring her was not helping their relationship. This is the first full-length Nameless story I’ve read, so I’m not sure how it compares to others, but I’m adding it to the list of series I pick up when I see them at used bookstores.