::READERS REVIEWS::

Writing to be Savored - Blue Lonesome was my first Pronzini novel and I was completely hooked by his moody, noirish, detective procedurals. After reading Blue Lonesome I spent the next 18 months acquiring and devouring all of the thirty-plus Nameless mysteries, and many of Pronzini's stand-alone mysteries. Most of his books are great reads, some are classics of the genre, but they all have his spare, straight, brilliant way of putting you in a scene. The carefully developed plots lead to some out-of-the-way corner and maybe a single clue. Pronzini's loner-protagonists are usually on a quest for truth, despite the consequences, and they don't give up. They keep digging until the mystery is solved, sometimes in an explosive climax.

In many of the Nameless mysteries, I felt like I became Nameless himself, grinding away until I had it all figured out. Can there be any greater compliment to a writer? As some reviewer said of Pronzini's novels, "this is writing to be savored over a glass of single-malt scotch". Exactly.

Earth to amazon reviewers: "'War and Peace' is a five star book. 'Blue Lonesome' is not." - i'm impulsive. i often purchase multiple books by the same author before ever having read any of their stuff. case in point: bill pronzini. based on all the favorable reviews his "nameless detective" books get on amazon, i bought over a dozen of the things, and picked up a couple other pronzini offerings, to boot. Blue Lonesome was the 1st that i've read. and here's the thing: the entire premise of this book's plot is eye-rolling ridiculous. completely unbelievable. the protagonist is just as bad as the plot, and i won't even go into the wooden, asinine dialouge. thanks amazon reviewers. now i have a bunch of books by this author hanging out at the house, and i am afraid to go near them. over the course of 25 years of reading i have seldom delved into the genre of mysteries. i am trying to get into them, but perhaps my initial instincts were correct, and i need to avoid this stuff. anyway, i hope not. i want to find good (great might be asking too much) mysteries. i will keep looking. certainly did not find the right stuff here.

A Great Mystery--an up-in-the-night read - Note: I made some immature Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews almost as fast as they are posted. This is the second time I've re-posted my review of this book.

Your "helpful" vote is greatly appreciated, and please remember that a short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great novel.

This book hooked me from the start. I don't want to give much of it away, but a man meets a lonely woman in San Francisco, and then she dies. The man knows nothing about the woman, and he goes to her apartment and finds a book that was checked out of a Nevada library. He takes some time off work and tries to solve the mystery of her life and death. It's also a great love story of a man finding a new home.

A great mystery, and not to be missed.

Check out the mysterious cover illustration. Very nice!

Also, if you are interested in American history, check my one-star reviews of books written by Mormons.

Underrated Masterpiece - This is a novel with the depth of Horton Footes classic "Tender Mercies," and although noir in tone it is not quite like anything else Pronzini has written. A wonderfully understated novel written by an author at the height of his powers.

OH LONESOME BLUE - Okay. Here's the set-up:
You are a lonely middle-aged CPA and you eat at the same places almost every day. You notice a sad looking woman, not a pretty one, mind you, just sad, and you identify with her because she is so obviously lonesome, just like our CPA.
You get the nerve up to try and speak with her, and it doesn't work. She doesn't tell you her name or anything about her. You follow her home one night and find out her name is Janet Mitchell. You are obsessed with why she's so lonely. Soon she stops coming to the restaurant and you're worried. You go visit her apartment complex and speak to the oriental landlady. She tells you that the lady is dead, committing suicide in her bathtub. Now, would you even imagine pursuing this any further? Well, James Messenger, our hero does.
Although I found the setup for this novel quite unbelievable, Pronzini manages to make it work with his wonderful prose and sense of characterizations. Needless to say, Messenger ends up in the lady's hometown of Beulah, Nevada, and finds out her real name, and learns that she had been accused of murdering her philandering husband AND her eight year old daughter. Messenger knows she didn't do it (how, you got me!). Soon, Messenger faces the expected town bullies and even the dead woman's sister. He takes a job on her ranch, and gets more and more involved with the lady and the townspeople.
The book is short, moves along well, and the ending is quite a surprise, at least to me.
It's not what I consider a great book, but if you can get past the ludicrous setup, you should enjoy it.
RECOMMENDED.

Intriguing characters and plot - The book starts with an observation in the life of Jim Messenger, the main character, that intrigues him: who is this very lonely-looking isolated woman he often sees in the local diner? This proceeds to revelations about his life and the mystery that surrounds the woman. His quest to find out takes him far from home in San Francisco to the rural area of Nevada.

The plot is fascinating, the writing is descriptive and vivid, and the characters unforgettable.

Writing to be Savored - Blue Lonesome was my first Pronzini novel and I was completely hooked by his moody, noirish, detective procedurals. After reading Blue Lonesome I spent the next 18 months acquiring and devouring all of the thirty-plus Nameless mysteries, and many of Pronzini's stand-alone mysteries. Most of his books are great reads, some are classics of the genre, but they all have his spare, straight, brilliant way of putting you in a scene. The carefully developed plots lead to some out-of-the-way corner and maybe a single clue. Pronzini's loner-protagonists are usually on a quest for truth, despite the consequences, and they don't give up. They keep digging until the mystery is solved, sometimes in an explosive climax.

In many of the Nameless mysteries, I felt like I became Nameless himself, grinding away until I had it all figured out. Can there be any greater compliment to a writer? As some reviewer said of Pronzini's novels, "this is writing to be savored over a glass of single-malt scotch." Exactly.