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(More customer reviews)Spadework was published on the 25th anniversary of The Snatch, the first Nameless Detective novel. I am delighted to highly recommend this collection of fifteen short stories to all fans of detective fiction and especially those who love the Nameless Detective. Two of the stories appear in print for the first time ("Worried Mother Job" and "Zero Tolerance"). The book has an excellent foreword by Marcia Muller about her take on her husband's work, and an interesting afterword by Mr. Bill Pronzini in which he talks about his dedication to the needs of the story over the continuity of the series. One of the highlights of the book is "Cats-Paw" which won the Shamus award for the best detective short story in 1983. The book also has a bibliography of the Nameless Detective novels and short stories through 1996.
The stories in Spadework cover the whole gamut of Nameless Detective styles, from early noir to sophisticated plots to wonderful locked room mysteries. The times of the stories are not specified, but appear to date from 1970 to 1996 based on their first publication dates. I found Spadework to be even more appealing than the Casefile collection that preceded this work in 1983.
My favorite story in the collection is "Worried Mother Job" which typifies the kind of case that Nameless hates to take . . . and hates even more after he has taken it. The story touches on deep psychological themes that chilled me . . . and will stay for me for years to come. "Home Is the Place Where" is almost as gripping and moving.
I love puzzles, which is one reason I like Mr. Pronzini's work. He has a wonderful talent for them, which is not the case for many writers of short stories. His puzzles can be solved, but you have to pay close attention to what is seen and heard. Then you have to think about what it all means. He uses subtle misdirection that will cause the careless reader to miss important clues. This was masterfully done in "Cats-Paw." Mr. Pronzini's puzzles often connect to long ago events and crimes, and have a wonderful synchronicity to them. However, when you find too much synchronicity, sometimes that's a clue that something's wrong so pay attention. Mr. Pronzini is a careful writer. Something that seems to coincidental to be true probably isn't.
As I finished the story, I was reminded of how we so often bring our troubles on ourselves.
This book is hard to find, by the way. Our local library had to access a copy from Pennsylvania for me. So get help if you cannot easily locate it on your own.
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